All That You Can't Leave Behind
by russetfurbr
Summary: Vincent struggles to regain Catherine's trust after the mistake he made by trying to reconnect with Alex. Alternative ending to Alex's arc. Rated due to possible future violence. Image borrowed from TeamCatcent.
1. Rooftop

**Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction written for fun. I don't own Beauty and the Beast in any way. **

**Rooftop **

"You don't have to worry about Alex. I gave her some money and the final tips of becoming a ghost," Catherine declared as soon as she saw him.

"So she's okay?" Vincent asked relieved.

"Yeah, she took it as well as she could."

"Thank you for doing that!"

"Of course."

"I guess she just need some time."

"Probably. I also told her to call you. Now that almost a week had past she must be calmer so I'm sure you'll be able to talk and work things out," Catherine said in the most neutral tone she could manage, not looking at his face.

"I don't think there's much else to say after everything that happened last week," he replied slowly, taken aback by what she said.

She just shrugged, looking at her feet and letting out a muffled sound.

"Look, I know I promised I would give you some space, but I actually came here to see if you're free tonight," the war veteran confessed hopeful.

"What? Like in Valentine's day plans? Seriously?" the petite female questioned surprised and somehow indignant.

"Yeah, I know my timing sucks, but I don't want to have to wait a whole other year," he answered sheepishly. "It seems I've already missed a few opportunities with you."

"Vincent, I'm protecting you. Please, don't mistake this as anything else," Catherine said rationally.

His timid smile faded instantly and he was only able to muted a simple "Okay" in response.

Seeing his disappointment actually made her feel guilty and she felt obligated to explain what she was feeling. He had to see how much he damaged the trust she had put on him.

"What we had... I actually let myself want it. And the second you saw Alex, you turned away. How am I suppose to trust you'll be there?"

"Catherine, it was never even about Alex. It was just me trying to live some fantasy life, you know? One where I might seem normal again. What I felt for you... It never went away. Never. Not for one second," Vincent explained in a pleading tone.

Her eyes shone with a little hint of moist, but she took a deep breath to regain control over her emotions, voicing in pained whispers everything that was repressed in her chest, everything that made her go through countless insomniac nights since that whole situation began. Her voice wavered several times, like she was battling tears constantly.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better, Vincent? Knowing that what you did wasn't based of some kind of confusing feelings? Knowing that you were actually willing to hurt me the way you did just because you wanted to feel normal? I asked you once if with me you would always be not normal and you never gave me an answer. I guess I have one, now."

"It's not like that, I...," he affirmed, reaching for her.

Her instantaneous reaction made his words die in his throat. She took a step back, her eyes guarded, her posture stiffed. Her expression was a mix of confusion, disappointment and wariness. She was so obviously hurt that he couldn't force his way through her barriers.

"And now, you simply come here to ask me on a Valentine's date? You just assumed that I would be here, waiting for you to come back when it pleased you? When you had done playing make believe with Alex? Or you simply thought that I was some kind of old toy to play when you got tired of your new one? Did you even thought about how unconsidered is of you to ask me this after everything you said and done just last week?"

Her words felt like a knife stabbing his heart. And the worst of all was that he couldn't defend himself. He wasn't sure if part of what she said wasn't true. He felt like an ass again.

Everything she did from the start was protect and care for him and he just threw his insecurities and his self hating over her shoulders, seeing in her attitude towards him only what he wanted to see to confirm that he didn't deserve her, that she didn't want him. He never really trusted that she felt something for him, that she was truly falling in love with him, thus the mess he made. But there was one thing she had said that he was absolutely sure it wasn't true.

"I never thought of you as an old toy," he murmured sadly.

"I wish I never have to say that, Vincent, but I highly doubt that," Catherine said just as quietly and just as sad.

There was nothing he could say to placate her pain, to justify himself. She was right in everything she said. And she was also wrong in everything she said.

"So, what now?" he wanted to know, feeling defeated.

"We made sure your fiancée doesn't slip up again. They find her, they find you. I'll let you know if she calls me," the young woman responded with a hard expression.

"She's not my fiancée," Vincent whispered, more out of reflex than actual defense.

She didn't said anything, just looked at him with that same mix of emotions from before. It was really painful to be in his presence. She wasn't sure if she could ever get over the sorrow that engulfed her heart at that moment. She couldn't decide what it was worst about all that. If it was her previous assumption that he still loved Alex and that she had been a mere distraction while the redheaded woman was away from his life or his confession that his cruel behavior towards her was based only on a selfish need to be someone else, to be Vinnie – a person that didn't exist anymore.

"If she get in contact with you, let me know. It's not safe to have her wandering around with Muirfield so close!" she instructed, turning his back on him and entering the building again.

Vincent sigh heavily, watching her walking graciously away from him. How could he be so stupid to act the way he did? He had been so blind by Alex's promises of a different future that he hadn't even thought about what he was willing to leave behind.

In a matter of two weeks, he managed to destroy the trust he took months to build between Catherine and himself. In a matter of two weeks, he managed to loose the most precious thing he ever found in his life.

**A/N: I've been trying to cope with the butchering the BatB writers did on Vincent's character since the beginning of this absurd arc and, although its already over and I'm thrilled that VinCat kissed and assume their relationship for good, I still have a bitter taste in my mouth.**

**I simply can't get over it! Everything was careless thrown on our faces like the writers could care less for what we felt and – the unforgivable thing – about the show's quality. **

**I never opposed to the IDEA of Alex. In fact, I thought it was a great plot that could bring so much to the show and force VinCat to take their relationship to the next level. **

**But everything was so poorly handled, so badly written that I can't even watch those 4 eps again.**

**So I decided to give myself a proper closure and alter everything I thought it was wrong about the actual closure. I won't try to do it with the whole arc because I could never will myself to make the characters be where they were when "Trust No One" started and that's why I took it from there. **

**I don't thing many beasties would like it, but I'm not trying to offend anyone. I'm just trying to cope with this and enjoy my favorite show as much as I did before.**

**See ya!**


	2. Only a Scientist Would Know

**Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction written for fun. I don't own Beauty and the Beast in any way. **

**Only a Scientist Would Know **

Vincent entered the warehouse with his head bowled, pensive and looking miserable. Not only Catherine hadn't forgive him for his blindness, but she also suggested that his story with Alex wasn't finished yet. She knew that almost a week had passed without any contact between them and she still thought that Alex was his "first choice".

The tragic thing about it was that he never choose. He never thought that Alex could erase Catherine's image from his mind, from his heart. To him, it was never a choice between two women, it was a choice between two lives. Because if it was a choice of love, he simply wouldn't have a choice. Catherine was the one he loved and he knew that quite well.

But he only thought about two necessities: to redeem himself for all the damage he had made to Alex's life and to try and live a life were he could be free. His need for doing those two things took all his rationality away. Now, Catherine didn't even have the will to look at his face properly.

He really had managed to screw things up that time, didn't he?

JT chuckled when he passed him towards the couch.

"I see your little excursion during daylight didn't go so well. Catherine still has her forcefield up after the whole 'Alex thing'?"

The ex-soldier sighed heavily, feeling drained and responded in a plain tone.

"Oh, no! It's worst than that! She told me that she actually asked Alex to contact me so we can 'work things out'!"

He made quote marks in the air with his fingers to emphasize her declaration.

The scientist looked up at him with a mix of amusement and exasperation in his features, speaking sarcastically.

"And that surprises you because...?"

"JT, she knows I hadn't contacted Alex since that whole fiasco on the woods. I texted her the entire week, begging her to forgive me. I went there today to ask her to be my Valentine, to have dinner with me tonight. I lost the count of all the times I said she's not and had never been my second choice. I even told her that I never stop caring about her, even when I was with Alex! What more does she want me to do?"

JT's mouth dropped open and he looked at Vincent like he thought he was completely insane.

"Wow, wow, wow! Stop right there! You did what again? Ask her on a diner on Valentine's day? Really? After everything that happened? Even knowing that she's not ready to forgive you yet? No wonder she's mad! How could you be so careless, Vincent?"

"I wanted to make it up to her! I want to be with her today because you spend Valentine's day with the woman you love! That's what you'll do with Sarah! That's what I want do with her!" he yelled exasperated, throwing his hands in the air in frustration.

"_He can't be serious, can he? The guy is a doctor, for God sake! He can't be that dense,"_ JT thought bewildered.

Seeing Vincent pacing up and down their makeshift living room actually made the slightly overweighted man pity his friend. His roommate had made a mess of his love life and there was no easy way out of it. JT sighed, taking a few seconds to breath and speak calmly and rationality, as the situation required. He had to make Vincent see what was really going on with Catherine.

"Dude, stop and listen to yourself! Think about what all that mess did to Cat. The girl just saw you going into _a romantic trip_ with the woman you were supposed to marry before all this Muirfield shit! The same woman with whom you did things that you would never do with her. You said yourself that she took a photo from Alex's apartment because you were smiling on it. You never smile around Cat, Vincent! I know that it's because you had been through a lot over these past ten years, but in her head, you're only happy when you're with Alex!"

JT took a pause to let his words sink. Vincent was shaking his head vehemently, denying all that.

"That's not true!"

"But Cat doesn't know that, does she? The only thing she saw was you running to Alex every time she snapped her fingers. The only thing she knows is that you were rekindling with Alex while she was recovering from a gun shot, man. When she needed you! All she knows is that with Alex you couldn't care less if you could be exposed. You were completely different from the man Cat knew when you were with Alex, man!"

"Just because she reminded me the man I used to be, not because I'm still in love with her!"

"It doesn't matter! You never tried to be that man with Cat! In her eyes, that man is reserved to Alex, that man only exists with Alex. And it doesn't help that only _after_ having been rejected by Alex, you went to tell Cat that she's the one you wanted!"

Vincent stopped pacing to look at his friend with terrified eyes. Did Catherine really thought that? Did she really believe that he was only happy with Alex? Was he happy with Alex?

No, he wasn't. He had fun with her. She pushed him to let go, to do the things the old Vinnie Keller would do, but that wasn't happiness. Those were only moments when he forgot about all the secrets and heaviness in his life. Thinking back, he wasn't even sure if he really had that much fun with Alex. He couldn't remember a single one of their encounters when he didn't worry about being exposed or about what Catherine would think if she saw him.

"I should never had tried to make it work with Alex. I don't know what possessed me, man! I felt so guilty when she told me that she never moved on."

"Well, in your defense, I understand that you two had story. You needed to see it through."

"Tell that to Catherine!"

"Dude, even I am not convinced that Cat isn't your second choice. You simply left everything behind as soon as Alex entered your life again. You went behind my back to reveal yourself to her, even after he had talked about all the risks involved. You jeopardized Catherine's job when you called her after invading that ice skating place. _Invading a private place, man!_ Just because your retarded fiancée wanted to play reckless teenager again. And you never apologized to Catherine for that! In fact, you threw on her face that Alex was better than her because she would run towards sunset holding hands with you! I wouldn't trust you, too!"

"First of all, Alex isn't my fiancée and she's not retarded. It was my fault, not hers. I should have been more careful," the ex-soldier tried to defend Alex.

"I'm sorry, but if she's not retarded, I'll have to nominate her to the Oscar, because she's very good on pretending that she is. You told her you couldn't be seen and the first thing she does when you both got busted by the cops is telling them your name and push you to reveal yourself. Yes, that was your fault and you damn right should have been more careful, but she didn't help a bit, did she? Catherine would never do something so stupid!"

"Catherine's a trained cop. She's used to deal with borderline situations," Vincent argued.

"And Alex's a trained nurse! She should know when to shut her big mouth! God, Vincent, when will you stop and see how much damage that woman did to your life, our lives in the space of two weeks?" JT yelled, frustrated with his friend incapacity to be objective when Alex was involved.

The war veteran sighed again, letting his body fall down heavily on the couch and resting his head in his hands, thinking about their conversation. JT waited for him to argue and carry the discussion on, but he seemed deep in thoughts and, after a few minutes, the glassed man simply shook his head and went back to his microscope.

Yes, JT was right in some things he said, but he couldn't let the redheaded woman take the blame for his mistakes. He was the one that should have been more careful, he was the one that should have taken Catherine's feelings in consideration and he was the one that should have acted like a grown up man and analyzed the situation as what it was, not letting himself be cared away by an unrealistic illusion.

After a long time, the ex-soldier came back from his musings, deciding to stop beating himself up for what he couldn't change.

"It's useless to keep digging on that, JT. What I did was idiotic and it's all my fault."

JT took the opportunity to voice the question that had been bothering him since Vincent came back from that awful weekend with his head down and bowed shoulders. His voice was a mere whisper.

"Would you do it? Would you leave everything behind to run away to Neverland with Alex? Were you really planning on live with her without ever telling her about your genetic mutation, without giving her the chance to choose if that was the life she wanted?"

"I tried to tell her, JT, I really did! She didn't want to know, though. Every time I tried to come up with the topic, she stopped me. She kept saying that she was in, that she would do everything to be with me and I just got cared away. Yes, I have to confess that I was tempted to never tell her about my condition, but I know I wouldn't be able to hide it from her forever, that my conscience wouldn't leave me alone until I came clean with her. It wouldn't be right! It's just... When she looked at me, she saw a human and not a monster. I don't see a human when I look in the mirror in ten years, JT. It felt so good to be human again," the taller man explained.

"What about taking off with her?" JT pressed.

"Honestly? I don't know. It was all so wonderful in the picture Alex painted to me. I actually saw myself in scrubs, taking care of needy kids in a far away country. The only thing that it wasn't right about that picture was the woman by my side. Every time I thought about myself tied up for life to Alex, I hesitated. A part of me simply couldn't accept that. A big part. The part of me that couldn't stop thinking about how would I manage to spend the rest of my life without Catherine. After having this time alone to think, I'm sure I couldn't do it, I'm sure I would realize how unhappy I would have been with Alex at some point. But I think that, if Alex hadn't rejected me, if she hadn't saw the worst of me, I would see my stupid error too late."

"And you would never be able to come back. You would actually live the rest of your life miserable with a woman you don't love," JT completed for him, unsure if he should pity his friend or think that he would have got what he deserved.

"Yeah, that pretty much summons all up!" Vincent agreed.

That was the first time he stopped to think about all that. So far, he was only worried about making Catherine understand what she really meant to him. Thinking about how he could had screwed his life up in an irreparable way made him, ironically, grateful for that horrible night in the woods. That was the first time he saw something positive in the frightened way Alex had looked at him. If she had accepted him, he could be thousands of miles away from Catherine now, regretting every minute of it.

"I just have to win Catherine's trust back. That's my main gold now!" he said confident.

"Man, it's not that easy! You just made the worst mistake a man can do to destroy a relationship!"

"She knows I'll always be there for her!"

"Knowing that you'll be there to rip someone limb by limb to help her is a little bit different than knowing that your brain won't melt again in the presence of the next hot girl that comes along," the glassed man explained as if he was talking with a two year old.

"Okay, thank you! You're really not helping!"

JT shook his head with a smug smile on his face, like someone that knew a big secret that he wasn't willing to share with Vincent.

"What?" the genetic altered man asked puzzled.

"Dude, _it is_ Valentine's day! What you have to do is romance your woman the best you can. Do something completely unexpected and crazy. You screwed up so big that your only option is doing something really unpredictable. A real public display of affection," his friend clarified like a true expert on the topic.

"Yeah, I sent her flowers. Red roses, to be exact! I'll head up to the precinct in a few to see her receiving them," he said, feeling very proud of himself.

JT laughed out loud at Vincent's naivety. He really had no idea on how to win a woman's affection, did he? Maybe having dated the same woman since childhood wasn't the best way to know what women in general wanted.

"What now?" Vincent asked annoyed.

As if JT was some Casanova. He took months to even talk to Sarah. Who he thought he was to judge what Catherine would think about his roses? He hadn't even spent that much time with her. There was no way he could know the brunette more than him.

"Nothing, man! You go and see her reaction to your beautiful flowers! Just know I'll be here to help you when you come back with your tail between your legs!" his friend mocked him openly.

Vincent shook his head, annoyed with JT's false sense of superiority. Who was he to know what Catherine liked or not? Better yet, who was he to know what women in general liked? He couldn't wait to see his roommate swallowing his words when he came back telling him how delighted the female had been about receiving his flowers.

**A/N: I guess I really got cared away with this chapter. It's always so good to write lines to JT. You don't have to restrain yourself and think about nice ways to say things because he's so blunt. **

**I want to thank everyone that took the time to read and review this story. Knowing that I'm not the only one unsatisfied by the way the writers treated the show during this arc really helps to relieve my frustration. **

**See ya! ;P**


	3. Suspect Behavior

**Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction written for fun. I don't own Beauty and the Beast in any way. **

**Suspect Behavior **

Alex was frantic. She couldn't stop looking around her, trying to find any suspect activity on her surroundings. When the waitress came by to offer her another cup of coffee she jumped slightly, startling the poor girl. She smiled awkwardly to her in a poor attempt to look normal and said that she would wait until her friend arrival. The employee turned and went back to her work, actually relieved about not having to serve that strange woman, at least for now.

The nurse's mind was a complete mess. She was really trying to understand everything that had happened in the last two weeks of her life. Finding out that Vince was alive, that he still loved her and that he hadn't changed a bit the same way she didn't had seemed like a dream, a payback for all the misery she had been through the past nine years, as if destiny had pulled its strings to reunited them again.

Her dream was shattered in less than two hours, though. Seeing him turning into a monster and ripping two men apart with his bare hands had been too much for her. She couldn't think straight at the time and had pushed him away when everything he wanted was to be with her. She had been so stupid.

Nothing made sense anymore. She had to leave her house and her life in order to protect herself from the people that was trying to kill Vince. At least, that was what that woman told her to do.

Catherine.

But something was not right about her. She was always there, always lurking around them, always interfering, waiting for an opportunity to get in the middle of them. Even though she had told her to contact Vince, there was something off on the way she talk about him and the way her fiancé acted around her.

Whenever she was close by, Vince was a completely different person. He seemed lost, sad and regretful. Their interactions were filled with tension. It sounded like he owned her something and she made sure to remind him of it every single time they spoke.

She hadn't forgot the hateful way the brunette had looked at the ex-soldier when she came to save him from going to jail. Alex hadn't forgot that he turned his back on her to follow that woman in her burst of rage or that he didn't speak one single word while escorting her home after that.

A tap on the window by her side startled her, taking her out of her musings. Arlin had arrived. Seeing his friendly face made her let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Despite Vince's fear of talking with anyone but that woman, Alex wasn't convinced that there was nothing they could do about his condition. Arlin was an old friend from her activist's days. He was honest and smart and she knew she could trust him with any secrets even though he was a journalist.

She explained all the situation to him, about Muirfield, the experiments in Afghanistan and Vince turning into something inhuman, giving him all the details and names she knew about. He would find something about all that. If there was anyone that could help Vince, she was sure Arlin would find that person. She omitted Catherine's name, though. She didn't want him digging about Vince's handler because that could call her attention to what she was doing and the detective could obstruct Arlin's investigation.

They parted ways with Arlin's promise that he would contact her as soon as he found something out. He seemed genuinely worried about her and told her to be extremely careful because they didn't know what those people were capable of.

Alex went back to her hotel room, making sure to take the longest route she could think about to get there. As soon as she entered the room, breathing a sigh of relieve for being secure again, she decided it was time to call Vince using the burner phone Catherine gave her. As much as she didn't entirely trusted the detective she had been right when she said they should talk.

"Hey!" Vince said, obviously smiling, when he answered.

His cheerfulness confused her. How did he know she was the one calling him? Did Catherine give him her number? If that was the case, why hadn't he try to contact her? Then, she remembered that she had ran away from him and he was probably afraid to contact her and be rejected again. No wonder he would wait for her time. Vince was such a gentleman!

"Vince! It's so good to hear you!" she said, letting out a longing breath.

"Alex?" her fiancé asked, sounding confuse.

Vincent wasn't expecting her call. Yes, Catherine had told him that she asked her to do it, but when he saw an unknown number on his phone's screen, he thought that it was the brunette's new burner. He couldn't help but smile, thinking that she had changed her mind and was calling to accept having dinner with him. He had completely forgotten about Alex.

"Yeah, Vince, it's me! I... I'm sorry for not calling you before, I..." she babbled, feeling her eyes watering.

"It's okay, Alex! You don't have to explain anything. I know you should probably be scared," he replied comprehensively.

How could she think that sweet man was a monster? He must be devastated with her attitude. What had she done?

"Vince, I thought about you the whole week. I'm sorry for the way I treated you in the woods..."

Despite how hurt he was with her rejection, he felt bad for her.

"Alex, it's fine! I should have told you everything the first time we talked that night in your car. I didn't do it because I was afraid of putting you in danger. I was going to tell you that day in the cabin, but things got out of our hands. It's not your fault."

"I know, Vince! I know you wouldn't hide something like that from me. But that doesn't matter anymore. I've been thinking about a way to help you. I have friends from my activist's days that can hide us while we try to figure out what to do about your condition," she told him.

"What? What do you mean 'hide us'?" he questioned, taken by surprise.

"Hide, Vince! Getting away from New York and these people that are hunting you! My friends can help us... help you!" she explained, a little exasperated with his surprise.

Didn't he want to get away from all that with her? That was what he told her that night in the woods.

"_Was she serious? After everything that happened, she was still living in that dream land?"_ Vincent thought, bewildered.

"I'm not leaving New York!" he responded firmly.

"_I'm not leaving Catherine's side! I'll never make this stupid mistake again! Even if it takes a hundred years to win her trust back!"_ he thought to himself.

"Why not? Because Catherine said you can't?" the redheaded woman half affirmed.

"She never said anything about that," the war veteran replied, trying to keep a calm tone.

He didn't want to upset Alex even more by openly defending Catherine. His ex-fiancée illusions had nothing to do with the woman he loved. That was all his fault and he should be the one to be blamed and the one that should fix that error.

"Well, she specifically told me that it wouldn't be a good idea when I suggest it yesterday," the girl retorted aggressively.

"Because she knows how dangerous Muirfield is," he whispered, conciliatory. "Catherine's only trying to help."

"How? By sending me away without any explanation? She didn't even wanted to tell me where you are!" she accused, losing her temper when she realized that he was actually defending her.

"No one can know where I am, Alex," he said, sighing and wishing to have a better thing to say. "She wouldn't tell anyone, it's not just you."

"But she can!" the tall woman affirmed outrageous.

Vincent's eyes landed on the clock beside his bed and that conversation simply lost its interest. He set the time to deliver his roses in half hour so he had to take off in order to see Catherine's reaction. Just thinking about seeing her smile made his heart swell.

"Alex, I have to go now! Please, be careful and be safe. I'll talk to you later, okay? Don't try and contact your friends. You'll only put them in danger," Vincent said in a pleading tone.

"Vince, I..." she tried to argue, but he cut her off shortly.

"Alex, I'm begging you! Don't do anything! Don't talk to anybody! Wait for my call! Can you do that? Please?"

"All right, Vince! I'll wait!" she agreed.

He didn't need to know about Arlin. She would have to find things out for herself before telling him anything so she could convince him that they could change that horrible thing that happened to him. They would overcome that. Together.

**A/N: Well, that would be an Alex that I could understand. I think I would still not like her, but at least, I could empathize with her. **

**I really fell that the writers could have done a better job with her. The way I see it, they simply put a bunch of lines for the actress to tell, without caring if it made sense or not. **

**See ya! ;P**


	4. Suicide

**Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction written for fun. I don't own Beauty and the Beast in any way. **

**Suicide**

"Cat! You'll never believe what just happened!" Heather exclaimed excited, pulling her by the hand towards the lady's room.

Cat had to laugh of her sister's antics. Heather got excited about almost everything. Her older sister sometimes found it hard to understand why discovering a few flavor of yogurt – or something as ordinary as that – was so awesome. But that was just Heather.

"I'm sure I'll believe in pretty much anything when it comes to you, sis!" she teased, earning an ugly distorted expression of disdain as response.

"I got a Valentine's date!" she exclaimed with a big smile, clapping her hands to empathize her contentment.

"Wow, less than two hours on your new job? That was fast! Who's the lucky guy?"

"Joe's younger brother, Darius! You never told he had a cute brother."

"I didn't know he had a cute brother. I didn't even meet him yet."

"See? I told you, taking control of your love life pays off. You should listen to me every once in a while."

"I already had too many problems in my life, Heather. I think it's better for me not trying to follow your advices," Cat mocked her with a smug smile.

"You're really annoying sometimes! Did you know that?" Heather accused.

"As a matter of fact, I did! And I always to my best to make sure of that," she teased, amused with her sister's irritation towards her.

"Whatever. When you end up alone in a house with a hundred cats, don't complain I never tried to help," the younger woman vaticinated, turning her back on her and leaving the room.

Still with a smile on her face, Cat went back to her desk. Her eyes went wide when she saw a beautiful bouquet of red roses placed on top of it and her smile faded immediately. Tess was hovering over them with that devious expression she wore every time she "caught Cat on her secrets".

"Secret admirer! I read the card," the tall woman teased.

From the rooftop of the building in front of the precinct, Vincent noticed that Catherine didn't have the happy expression he had been expecting to see when she looked at the roses. Her heart rate increased, but he couldn't figure out what was in her mind by the look on her face.

"You can't read someone else's cards!" Cat admonished her.

"Well, I did. So..."

"I don't know who sent them."

"Oh, please! I assume the weekend in the woods didn't end up that great for the ex and Ass is back in town."

"I don't care!"

"Well, there are two dozen roses here saying that he wants you to care."

"As if cut flowers say anything about honestly loving or trusting somebody. It's easy to come back to your old town when your new town kicked you out."

Vincent cringed to her words. He really had acted like an inconsiderate ass, hadn't he? Even _he_ didn't understand why he had to wait until Alex dumped him disgusted by his bestial side to realize that Catherine had always been the one for him. Now she simply didn't believe that he truly loved her. Apparently, Tess had given him an appropriate nickname.

Just when Catherine was about to reply, Joe came in to introduce his younger brother to the girls, taking the opportunity to give them a new case. Tess came up with a "bloody Valentine" theory. As soon as their boss went back to his office, the shorter woman got up and put the roses on her partner's desk.

"Speaking on Valentine's... I can't accept those and what better way to keep _your_ secret admirer on alert than thinking you have another one?"

She gave the roses away!

He couldn't even fathom how that made him feel. He put himself on those roses and she didn't even care. She simply disposed them without thinking twice! The same thing he did to her when she went to tell him that she wanted to be with him. Now he knew how deeply he had hurt her, how much he had wronged her. God, he was an idiot!

"But he won't know you didn't accept the flowers," Tess argued.

"It doesn't change the fact that I don't want them! Why should I keep meaningless roses? His ex finds out about his problems, dumps him and, magically, he realizes I'm the one he wants? If she had accepted the bad side of being with him, he would probably be thousands of miles away from here, without even saying goodbye. I don't need someone like that in my life."

Yes, he probably would! He would be miserable as soon as he realized that he was the one disgusted by what he was, not her and that she had never saw his as a Beast. But, by then, he would already have done the worst mistake of his life. Even worst than joining Muirfield's project. And she would spend the rest of her life thinking that he didn't love her, that she had been just a toy to play while his true love was away.

There was nothing more to see there. She wasn't happy or touched by his flowers. The best thing to do was going back home. Which he did with a heavy heart. In the end, JT was right. Roses, red or not, didn't mean anything.

Meanwhile, Cat and Tess arrived at the crime scene. Seeing the beautiful dead green eyes of the victim staring at the ceiling forever was sad. Something about that made Cat feel a strange tingle on her spine. There were signs of struggle around the house, not too obvious, but still there. Whoever had done that must have been in a hurry, judging by the lack of attention to those details.

Tess found out his identity by looking at some papers and documents on his desk. Arlin Witmann, a journalist. While they were searching his house for some kind of lead, Cat noticed that there was no laptop, which was mandatory in his profession. Maybe he had found out something he shouldn't had while investigating one of his stories.

The petite detective saw the tip of an object under the bed and bent down to pick it up. It was his phone. She accessed the historic of calls, just out of curiosity – maybe they could check on the last people that contacted him – and one of the names on the screen made her panic instantaneously.

Alex Salter had contacted him the previous day.

**A/N: The chapter's name is kinda of a double meaning. Arlin's murder was a fake suicide. Alex getting in Muirfield's radar is almost suicide. And Vincent committed a love life suicide when he choose Alex. **

**I love Cat disposing his roses. It serves him right!**

**See ya! ;P**


	5. Third Person

**Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction written for fun. I don't own Beauty and the Beast in any way. **

**Third Person**

The blonde woman spotted the dark haired man placidly reading his newspaper on a public bench in the middle of the square. No one would ever look at him and think that he was anything else than a business man enjoying a little free time between meetings. A totally ordinary and harmless man.

But she knew better. She knew what he was capable of. She had saw first hand along the years how deadly and cold he could be. Claire Sinclair – she hated the name she had been forced to use for that specific mission, but she had to admit that it was easy to remember – feared him, despite being on his side. She had always been very careful to let him know that. She didn't want to think about what he could do if he thought otherwise.

Therefore, she tried to be as calm and compose as she could when she sat by his side, letting a fair distance between them so they could pass as mere strangers sharing a seating spot, and admonished him for having interrupted her while she was with Evan Marks. He needed to be more careful or her identity could be exposed.

"That's not important now! We got a good lead. Unfortunately, we lost an entire team trying to capture it," her co-worker told her.

"Keller?"

"Yes, someone's protecting him. His fiancée," he said, handing her a photo discreetly.

"I thought we already had investigated her years ago. You said she was clueless," the agent retorted irritated.

There was nothing she hated more than inefficiency.

"She was. We kept a close eye on her over the years, though. The surveillance paid off because a couple of weeks ago she found him. We don't know why, but he appeared at the hospital where she works and they had been in contact ever since. We tried to be subdue, planting a bug on her place, waiting the perfect opportunity to catch him. He was stupid enough to go to her parent's cabin, very far from here and our team went there to capture him. We really don't know what happened, but he took them all down. Something must have gone wrong with Miss Sunshine, though, because she had been hiding without contact him since this episode."

"But if he only contacted her a few weeks ago, she's not the one helping him for all these years," Claire deduced.

"Smart girl! No, she's not. Someone cleaned the fiancée's place to erase his prints before a Narcotics investigation went there. We couldn't find who is this person, but I'm sure she knows everything about it. She went to a journalist with the story. I took care of him, but he didn't know anything about a third person. I need you to handle her."

"Am I suppose to risk my cover to take some girl off?"

"No, you have to find out who is the third person, too. Make up the story you want to win her trust. Just bring me results," he ordered coldly.

"I thought you said she was in hiding. Do we know where she is?" the blonde woman asked annoyed.

She didn't want to waste hours looking for the girl. She had better things to do than taking care of a woman stupid enough to get involved with Keller. Evan was getting closer and closer to them and she wanted to be around and make sure his research end up empty.

"We located her in a hotel two nights ago, but she managed to get out before we set a strategy to get her. She stopped using her credit card so locating her again was a little more difficult. Apparently, our team found her today through a surveillance camera when she was entering another hotel. The address is in the photo. Contact operations if you don't find her there so we can plan another move. But be quick. We already lost too much time running in circles to get Keller. We don't need her after that, got it?" the mysterious man said before getting up and walking away without looking back.

Great, now she was reduced to a mere cleaner! On the bright side, catching Keller would earn her extra points since no one had ever managed to do that before. The problem was finding out who else was helping the creature to keep off the radar for so long. But Keller must be getting sloppy, if he contacted his fiancée.

A plan started to form in Claire's mind. It depended on how much her target knew about the whole situation, but she was good of finding out what she wanted with sweet talk. That had always been one of her best assets. She smiled, thinking that the woman must not be very bright if she went to a journalist to tell the creature's story. So it won't be difficult to make her tell everything she wanted to know. She will find out who was the person in the fiancée's apartment, no matter what.

**A/N: I know there's nothing like this in the show, but I keep asking myself how the heck Claire found Alex on the street if she wasn't using her own phone or credit cards. **

**And the little thing about the third person will make sense later. **

**See ya! ;P**


	6. What Speaks Louder

**Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction written for fun. I don't own Beauty and the Beast in any way. **

**What Speaks Louder **

On the other side of the city, Cat felt a shriver running down her spine while she was quickly sliding under the warehouse's fence and almost running to the front door. She felt like being watched, even though she had been extra careful before venturing out of her car. Still, she felt like Muirfield was seeing her, that they were already waiting for the right time to get her. To get them all.

Vincent's heart accelerated when he heard Catherine's car approaching. A mix of worry and hope made him completely alert of her every move since she got out of her car towards his seating spot on the table. What could had possibly change for her to go back there? She hadn't came to see him once since that night fighting Muirfield's agents.

Her heart rate was incredibly high and she was moving faster than ever. But it was her expression that frightened him most. She wore that blank look of a cop with bad news when she sat in front of him with a newspaper in her hands. She never had that attitude when addressing him before.

"Do you know Arlin Witmann?" she asked mysteriously.

Everything about her posture was tense and stressed. He responded promptly, feeling unease.

"No. Should I?"

She placed the newspaper on the table. A journalist's suicide was the cover story.

"Alex went to a reporter. Do you know about this?"

"No!" he answered perplexed. "She called me this morning, after I went to see you, but she didn't told me anything about it."

"_Oh, no, Alex! What have you done?"_ Vincent thought desperately.

JT stopped everything he was doing and came to see the newspaper, horror wrote all over his face, his panicked tone reflecting Catherine's internal worry.

"W... What? I... Why would she do something so careless?"

"I don't know, JT. Maybe that's what normal girls do when facing a situation like that," the hazel eyed woman theorized.

Vincent didn't miss the sadness on her tone, it was obvious that she was thinking about their talk when he had implied she didn't make him feel normal. Catherine never tried to share his secrets with anyone else.

She continued, acting like that comment didn't mean anything.

"He turned up dead."

"Who needs Muirfield? _I am_ going to kill that woman!" JT ranted.

"I thought you have a date with your girlfriend now. You don't have time to kill anybody," the brunette argued, trying to smile.

"Yeah, yeah!" the professor went back to take his jacket, shaking his head in order to express his indignation.

Despite the tension, the female felt a smile forming on her lips. JT was almost as passionate as Heather, only in a different form. She sighed, thinking about how much trouble Alex's slip could cost them.

"It was a stage suicide. His laptop was missing."

"Muirfield," JT yelled from his spot next to the window.

Catherine had already thought about that, but she needed to talk to Alex, to find out what she had leaked to this Witmann guy so they could know exactly what to do and how much damage Alex made to their security.

"I can't find Alex anywhere, now. She's not answering her phone or the burner phone I gave to her. Did she tell you where she is?"

"No, we didn't talk for long. She wanted to apologize for the way she treated me in the woods," Vincent told them against his will.

He didn't want to remember that night. Specially in front of Catherine. Their relationship was already too fragile at the moment to keep digging in those hurtful memories.

"We need to find her," he affirmed worriedly, ready to get up from his chair.

Catherine's eyes fell to her lap instantly and she murmured something that sounded awfully like "typical", making him stop in the middle of his action to look at her.

"So, basically, Muirfield is closer than they ever been. But if they still have Alex's trail after what happened in the woods, how do you know they're not after you, too?" JT, always the voice of reason, asked her.

Vincent's heart skipped a beat at his friend's question. No! That was a nightmare! It was bad enough to have his persecutors tracking Alex down, but thinking about Catherine getting on their radar was suffocating. He thought that they had erase every trace of their connection when they took Silverfox's team down. It was too dark in the woods that night to identify her and they had been careful when disposing the bodies.

There was no way his nemesis could possibly know that the petite woman was involved with him. She was extremely careful, almost paranoid, when it came to Muirfield and their security. They wouldn't find her that easily, would they?

"I've been watching every move, every turn, every call," she reassured the two friends. "I hope I'm not alone."

"I'm on it, but as you mentioned, I don't have time to search the city for our beloved brainless friend. If I get too late, Sarah would kill me, anyway. You better be home when I come back, big guy!" JT recommended, leaving the building in a hurry.

"Vincent, you can't leave today! It's too risky. And it also might be a good idea to curb your on line spending," the brunette said, trying to be careful while touching the topic. "The secret admirer?"

"Yeah, you're welcome! Sorry, I needed to show you that I'm in this! But, it doesn't matter. It's not like you appreciated it, anyway! I hope Tess has a nice vase," he declared sadly, his fingers playing nervously with the newspaper in his hands.

"How did you...?" she started to say, but that would be a stupid question.

Of course, he would be somewhere close by to see her receiving the flowers. Her cheeks burned in embarrassment inexplicably when she realized what he had saw and heard. Giving his flowers to Tess was her way to relieve the pressure of her oppressed heart. But she knew it had been mean, that her heart would be broken if she was in his place. Then again, he never put himself in her place when he accused her of those horrible things in the woods.

"They _were_ beautiful," she kind of apologized, looking straight ahead; she didn't want to look at him.

"It doesn't change the fact that you don't want them!" he quoted her. "You're not making this easy!"

"Because you made it very easy for me, didn't you?"

"Catherine, what do you want from me? You were the one that told me to go to Alex! You pushed me away!"

Her eyes were burning so much that it took every little bit of strength she had to force herself not to cry. Her voice was a soft whisper, but reverberated in the quiet warehouse, anyway.

"_After_ you _kissed_ Alex in front of me, Vincent! _After_ finding out that you told her I was your _handler_! You couldn't even tell her I was your friend! You made sure to classify me as less than a friend. You made sure to tell her I'm nothing. You were cheating on me before we even start! What was I supposed to do?"

He couldn't find words to reply to that, to deny it. Had he really made sure to tell Alex that Catherine was nothing? Why did he call her that?

"None of that matters, right now!" the petite girl affirmed, trying to suppress her pain. "Alex betrayed you and she's still out there!"

"Yeah, in danger and it's my fault! So we got do something about it!" he said, really getting up from his chair that time.

Catherine felt an evil hand squeezing her heart at the sight of his eagerness to save Alex once again, to run to her once again. As much as it hurt her, she had to come clean with him. She had to make him see it.

"Vincent, why don't you admit your true feelings? You might think you own me something, but you don't! You really don't! I'm sure you can work things out with your fiancée as soon as this threat is over. She had already contacted you to apologize. You don't need to settle down with me."

"What are you talking about?" the war veteran asked slowly, quietly, afraid of her answer.

"Vincent, you keep saying that I'm not your second choice, that you didn't come back to me because you ran out of options, but every time the word Alex is spoken around you, you simply leave everything behind. What do you think speaks louder? Two dozen of roses or you getting on your feet, ready to forget about everything JT and I asked you, to forget about any risk to run and save her?"

"_Oh, God! Please, don't!"_ he thought astonished.

"Alex? You think I want to go with you because of Alex?"

She didn't respond anything, just let her head fall a little, hiding her face behind the curtain of her hair.

"Catherine, I'm not going to seat here while you're out there in danger! This is Muirfield we're talking about, not some psycho stalker that you can knock down with your fighting skills! I want to go because of _you_! I want to protect _you_!" the ex-soldier explained with a hint of despair in his voice.

"Prove it! Prove that you want to do things for me!"

"How? There's no way I can prove that to you! You simply don't believe a word I say. Right now, you're trying to convince me that I still love Alex. You keep referring to her as my fiancée. I don't want to be with her, Catherine! I don't love her anymore! I was stupid enough to let myself be guided for a fantasy, I admit it. But I never wanted her! I wasn't happy when I was with her! I want you! I'm happy when I'm with you! How can I prove myself if you don't even look at me anymore?"

"Stay safe here while I look for her! If you want me to trust you again, then stay in the warehouse!" the brunette demanded, leaving him no alternative.

He just looked at her, feeling torn and betrayed. She wasn't playing fair and she knew it! She was asking him to spend torturous hours waiting, worrying and not knowing what was happening to her, not knowing if she was alive or not. And he had no choice, but to agree.

They face each other in a battle of will for a few seconds before she took her eyes from his and left, leaving him with a bitter taste in his mouth behind.

**A/N: I never understood why Vincent was always so ready to help Alex and neglected Catherine so much when she was recovering from her gun shot. **

**And when I see people saying that this whole fiasco was Catherine's fault because she pushed him away, I simply don't understand. Yes, she did a lot of things wrong, including saying that him being with the dumb redhead wasn't her business and she did push him away. **

**But Vincent was the one that decided to go to the woods with Alex, he was the one that lied to both women, he was the one that depreciated Catherine by calling her a handler and he was the one that choose Alex because she was "normal". As if acting like a dumb ten year old could be considered normal. **

**No one pushed him to do those things. That was all on him. **

**See ya! ;P**


	7. Sacrifice

**Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction written for fun. I don't own Beauty and the Beast in any way. **

**Sacrifice**

A knock on the door startled her and Alex had to put her hands over her mouth to trap the desperate scream she wanted to let out inside her throat. A piece of paper was pushed under the door and she heard someone running down the hotel's corridor. The nurse walked carefully towards it, trying to see if there was someone's shadow outside her door. She bent down to watch under it, lying on her stomach.

When she was sure no one was there, she went to grab the paper quickly, running back to the bed with it. It was a simple white sheet with a short note. Alex thought it was strange that it wasn't handwritten.

**Tomorrow. 10 am. Belle's Coffee Shop.**

**Found something huge. Someone to help.**

**Can't risk exposure. Don't call me. **

Arlin! That was why it was printed. He found something and had to make sure no one would recognize his calligraphy. He had worked fast and had already found someone that could help them. Alex couldn't avoid the little seed of hope that grew on her heart. She found something to help Vince. All that time, he thought he was condemned, but they had found someone to help. A relieved smile formed on her lips. Starting the next day, Vince's life would go back to its tracks. And she would be by his side, as it always should had been.

Cat's mind was full of dreadful thoughts while she was on her way back to the precinct after a quick afternoon coffee. She hadn't ate anything at all after breakfast. She had tried all the alternatives she could come up with to track Alex down and nothing had worked so far. If she was in a real investigation she would have a lot more resources, but the limitations of having to do that discreetly was making the task almost impossible. Right now, her only hope was that the redheaded woman called Vincent.

Suddenly, she noticed people staring at her. In a matter of seconds, she was surrounded by strangers. Someone turned a radio on and those strangers started to dance around her.

A flash mob!

The surprised hazel eyed woman couldn't resist and laughed at that silly situation. That man was unbelievable! She had talked to him about the risks of sending her gifts less than four hours ago! She had to admit it was smart, though! He made sure to find something that she couldn't toss away, as she did with his roses. A real public display of affection. She couldn't stop smiling, reflecting the smiles of the passing pedestrians that had stopped to appreciate the show, feeling extremely embarrassed to be the focus of attention.

That was so ridiculous, unexpected, mortifying and... endearing!

The show was over in a few minutes, after the dancers released pink heart-shaped balloons, yelling her name. One of the girls handed her a pink heart-shaped paper folded. She unfolded it with a big smile on her face, already knowing what she would find there. A single letter. V.

At the warehouse, Vincent also had a smile on his face, watching her reaction on line. Despite all that was said that very morning, he couldn't stop himself. He had to show Catherine what she really meant to him. He was in love with that little, stubborn, lovely and selfless woman.

He knew that he had screwed up, that he had been blind and delusional and, most of all, that he had allowed his fears and self depreciation rule his actions, making him take cowardly decisions and he regretted every single one of them greatly. He was determined to prove his love for her, though.

The genetic altered man knew there was still hope, that her feelings for him hadn't went away, the same way his feeling for her remained intact, even when he was dreaming with an impossible life beside a woman he didn't love. Catherine had tried to deny it, but he could hear her heart beating fast when they were together, he could feel her sadness, her regret for everything that went wrong with them and, most importantly, her longing for him. The same way he longed for her.

As crazy as her theory was that he still was in love with Alex, the simple fact that she had tried to bring them back together told him more than a million words. She wanted to see him happy, even if it wasn't with her. All that time he spent with Alex, she had put on a brave face, letting him go so that he could be happy. Those weren't the actions of someone that was "only protecting him" without any emotional attachment.

He expected her to call him after the flash mob, but she didn't. He spent the rest of the day pacing the warehouse up and down. Punching the sandbag to relieve his frustration and tension got boring after some time. He tried some video games, but he couldn't concentrate enough on it. His mind kept drifting off to Catherine alone, looking for Alex around the city, while a thousand Muirfield's agents waited for her in every corner.

The former doctor was loosing his mind with worry. He called Alex's numbers, both the regular and the burner repeatedly during the day, but all his calls went straight to voice mail. Her lack of contact only added to his anxiety. It didn't help a bit that he was alone, but he decided not to call JT. The poor guy deserved to have a perfect dinner with his girl on Valentine's day. It wouldn't be right to interrupt their night. His friend had already given up too much to protect him.

But he couldn't take it anymore. He had to see Catherine, to know that she was okay, that his pursuers weren't near her.

Maybe she would be mad at him, but his need was bigger than his concern for her wrath. Besides, he could be really careful. He _did manage_ to escape Muirfield's claws when he was alone in a foreign country. He _did manage_ to live under their radar for nine years.

The dark haired man quickly made his way to the precinct. Despite the hour, he decided to check there first, knowing that she would be working extra hours to find Alex. Two blocks away from her work place, though, he heard her voice coming from a bar's door.

She was talking to Evan. Not only talking, but laughing, both teasing each other for their lonely Valentine's night. Catherine made a comment on how a person can't trust blond people, which earned her a little push and a fake complain from her co-worker, making her laugh harder. Vincent knew that it was irrational and that he didn't have any right to be jealous after Alex, but he couldn't avoid it.

She had refused to have dinner with him so she could spend the night with Evan? As far as he knew, the forensic was dating, but there was no sign of other girl around them. She told him that she was trying to move on. Was she really doing that, even knowing that he wanted her back? Even knowing that he never stopped loving her?

They parted ways, but not before Evan hugged _his girl_ tightly, planting a lingering kiss on her forehead. The ex-soldier fought with all his mighty the surge of rage that increased his heartbeat at the sight of their embrace. He couldn't let his animalistic side take control of his body. He needed to be himself when facing her.

Her shoulders fell instantaneously when her co-worker turned his back and she walked slowly to her car, looking exhausted and pensive. He felt ashamed again for making her lie to her family and friends and for causing her so much trouble. The brunette didn't stop at any place else before home. Heather was no where to be seen, but she didn't seem worried about her, going straight to her bathroom.

Vincent waited on the fire escape, hearing her every move to certify himself that he wouldn't catch her in any uncomfortable situation. He didn't want to harm their relationship even more. He felt like he was in such a fragile strand that the minimal pull could burst it down. She let out a long sigh, seating heavily on the bed after putting her pajamas. It was safe to announce his presence, then, and he knocked on her window.

"Vincent, what are you doing here? I thought we agreed that you would stay in the warehouse today!" she criticized him, opening the window and motioning him to enter quickly.

She stood in front of him with her arms crossed protectively over her chest and a wary posture.

"We did and I did stay there all day. But I was going out of my mind with worry. You didn't call me with any news."

"Because I don't have news. I couldn't find Alex," she replied exasperated.

"I called her the entire day, but she never picked up," he informed.

"You didn't need to come here to say that. A simple text message would do the job," the hazel eyed woman stated.

"I wanted to see you! Please, don't be mad! It's just... there were other reasons to call me besides talking about Alex," he murmured shyly.

The girl's attitude changed immediately. Her arms fell to her flanks and her features softened. Vincent thought he saw a shadow of emotion in her eyes, but it quickly vanished.

"I... I'm not mad, Vincent! I just worry about you wandering through the town with Muirfield on your trail! I suppose I do have to thank you for the flash mob. So thank you! It was touching," she said softly, like the Catherine before Alex would have done.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to," he reassured her in a tender tone.

"It didn't seem like it when you asked me if I would leave my life behind me to run away with you like Alex was willing to do," the female affirmed with that sad tone that made his heart bleed.

It felt like a slap on his face. An inconsiderate bastard! That was what he was!

"I'm sorry! I didn't come here to upset you. I guess I better going."

He turned his back on her to climb the window, but the sound of her whispered voice stopped him mid action.

"Funny thing is that Alex wasn't really leaving her life behind to follow you, was she? Going to a far away place where medical assistance was needed had always been her dream. Your shared dream, as I understand. She really don't have family, her friends are all activists, scattered around the world, trying to change it. There was nothing really holding her here. Therefore, one day she would just wake up, decide that she had enough of New York, pack her bags and leave. Sooner or later. With or without you. You showing up in her life again with a secret identity was only a trigger to make her do what she was just procrastinating. I may be cynical, but that doesn't really sound like a big sacrifice. She never really gave up on anything for you. She never had to risk her job for you. She never had to lie to protect you. Her partner never found her tampering evidence to protect you."

While she was talking, she had picked up her purse and retrieved a piece of paper from it, handing it to him. The words wrote on the paper made he feel like all his internal organs had turned into Jell-O.

**Mtg. w/ Alex**

**friend (Vincent K) **

**monster**

**Muirfield **

**experiment**

"Perhaps, that's the way normal girls sacrifice themselves. Not sacrificing anything at all," she finished, looking at the ground with that same hurt expression he saw on the rooftop earlier.

There it was his great offense again. She wasn't normal. Alex was. She didn't make him feel normal. Alex did. That was how she saw them after his momentary insanity. That was what he had told her.

He didn't have anything to say to that. The piece of paper in his hands seemed to weight a thousand pounds and it burned the tip of his finger. Alex had told everything she knew to the journalist. She had caused his death.

"I don't blame you for any of this. In the end, this is my fault! I mean, why would you have to consider me when Alex appeared again? Why would you have to show me respect? Why would you say that I was anything but a handler to Alex?" Catherine said saddened.

The war veteran tried to protest, to say that he _did have_ to show her respect, that he didn't know what had happened to him to make him depreciate her like that, that everything got so out of his hands, that he had been desperately afraid to hurt Alex by telling her about another woman and that he couldn't stand to put the nurse through yet another heartbreak after everything he did to her. That he simply wasn't thinking.

When he made the unforgivable mistake to classify her like that, he never thought he would see Alex again. He _didn't want_ to see her again. He wanted to remain in the shadows. _With Catherine_. He never thought that the petite woman would hear his ex-fiancée calling her that. He never thought that the girl he loved would pull back and let him "find out if he still loved her".

She didn't let him say anything, though, too lost in her own conjectures to even notice his weak gesture.

"I'm the one that expected too much of you. I'm the one that got deluded with the uniqueness of our relationship. I thought that, since I knew about Muirfield and everything, there wouldn't be lies between us, that we had a bond. I'm the one that assumed that _this_", she made a gesture between them, "was both-sided, that you owned something due to the way I felt for you. But you don't own me anything. I'm the one that own you my life. My mother was the one that changed your DNA. Perhaps, all this heartbreak is my punishment for what she did to you!"

"Catherine, don't!" the broken man protested desperate.

"Don't what, Vincent? Don't see what is right in front of me? Don't get hurt for what you said and done? Don't blame myself for letting you go, for wanting you to find happiness?"

A single tear rolled down her left cheek, but she blushed it away impatiently with the pajama's sleeve.

"Don't put words in my mouth! Don't take conclusions without knowing what's inside me! Don't try to figure out what I feel without even asking me! Don't push me away! Don't assume that I ever thought that Alex was better than you!" he yelled, feeling the Beast coming up to surface again.

And with the Beast, came the jealous of Evan.

"What was I supposed to do, then?" she murmured, not scared by the yellow glow in his eyes, but wanting him to calm down.

"You were supposed to stay by my side! You were supposed to tell me you didn't want me to reconnect with Alex! You were supposed to have dinner with me tonight, not spending it laughing about meaningless things with Evan!" the enraged man threw at her.

"What?" Catherine asked, widening her beautiful eyes in surprise. When she talked again, her voice was laced with a mockery sarcasm, "Oh, my God! You can't be serious! You can't come here and have a fit of jealous! You have no right! No right at all! You lost every bit of it when you went to that cabin with the wonderful normal woman that was giving up her non-existent life for you!"

Vincent shook his head to regain control, alarmed with the last damage he did to their relationship.

"Catherine, I'm sorry! I didn't mean..."

She spoke in a soft tone, but somehow it showed even more indignation than if she had screamed.

"You didn't mean what? To throw your guilt and the responsibility for your wrongs on me again? To tell me that I can't have a friend while you can go to a romantic trip with your fiancée? Get out of here, Vincent! There's nothing else for you to tell me!"

"I'm sorry! I wasn't following you, I was just looking for you. When I saw you with Evan, I just snapped. I had to use every once of control to not transform right there. When you said all those things, adrenaline kicked in and I lost it for a minute. I can't control the jealous I feel of you when I'm like this," he justified.

"And you still don't have any right to say those things to me. Not after Alex! Please, go! I promised that I would help with Alex and Muirfield and I won't go back on my word. But I don't want to see you right now! And stay in the warehouse tomorrow!"

He went back to climb the window, feeling the weight of the world on his back. He took a last glance at her, finding tears rolling down her face.

"I will, I promise. Would you be able to forgive me someday?" the tortured man asked, his voice trembling with his battle against tears.

"No, I won't. You ruined it, Vincent. You ruined what we had. I hate you! You made me hate you and I can't forgive you for that," was the cold response.

She had turned her back on him while talking and put her hand on the door's knob. As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she opened the door and left the room, closing it behind her.

He ruined it. The little bit that was still there. He just smashed it with his bare hands, as he did with all his victims. He never thought some day he would kill anything else as precious as a human life. He was wrong.

**A/N: Okay, don't kill me! I told you from the start that I'm trying to cope with this arc to make me forget about the shitty script the writers gave us and that you probably won't like it! **

**I'm not trying to offend anyone so if you don't like it, simply don't comment it! **

**I know the show put all in one single day, but I can't agree that everything that happened could fit one single day. I'm not talking about action, but some epiphanies!**

**I didn't add the scenes where Evan talks about Claire and Tess catches Cat tampering evidence because their scenes were actually the few ones I thought were well done. **

**See ya! ;P**


	8. There's Still Hope

**Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction written for fun. I don't own Beauty and the Beast in any way. **

**There's Still Hope**

JT looked up from his coffee mug, taking in his best friend's disheveled figure and the dark circles under his eyes while he poured milk over his cereal. He sighed heavily. His tone was disapproving when he addressed Vincent.

"I thought my day would be so great today! You know, being in cloud nine and all after my beautiful V-day with Sarah! Can we have, at least, one single day of tranquility?"

"Yeah, you came home pretty late last night. I was actually starting to worry. Now I know how you feel when I walk around," the former soldier said, ignoring his comment.

"That's what happen when you manage to get reservations on your girlfriend's favorite French restaurant on a busy day like V-day. And don't change the subject. What did you do this time?" the professor inquired shrewdly.

Vincent looked up with wide eyes quickly, as if he was a kid caught misbehaving. His eyes turned back to his bowl of cereal, trying to hide his shame from his best friend and protector.

"What makes you think I did something?"

"Patterns! You're an idiot and, lately, this lovely trace of your personality became quite prominent!"

Damn JT for knowing him so well! He sighed heavily.

"I might had... I kind of... I had a fit of jealous because I saw Catherine talking very friendly to Evan last night. I guess it's unnecessary to say that she was livid," he confessed in a quiet tone.

"First of all, I thought we agreed that you wouldn't leave the warehouse until Catherine was sure it's safe. And second, are you fucking kidding me? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Yeah, that's actually pretty close to what she said!"

"Dude, are you looking for the easiest way of destroying your relationship for good?"

The genetic altered man got up and started pacing up and down, pulling at his hair with such force that JT thought that he could actually get bald by the end of the week if he continued doing that. His voice tone was laced with angst, self hating and guilt.

"I couldn't help it! I saw them together and adrenaline went sky high! I barely managed to stay in control! Then, when we were together, Catherine started to talk about what she was feeling and she said some ugly things. Things that I still don't know what the fuck possessed to do and she was blaming _herself_ for it. I simply snapped. I actually almost transform while she was talking. I can't control my jealous of her when I'm like this, JT! I just get extremely territorial of her, it's like my inhuman side wants to claim her. I get protective of you when I'm like this, but it's totally different with her. It's not only protection. I don't know what happens to me!"

"It sounds to me that you're wiser in your Terminator form than in your human form. Come to think of it, I think I want you to beast out and stay Beast. It would probably save us a lot of trouble."

"What?"

The glassed man sighed again. Yeah, Vincent Keller was the dumbest doctor on Earth!

"Vincent, your beast side knows exactly who he loves and what he wants. Maybe if you had listened to it while Alex was around, you wouldn't be in so much trouble with Cat. It doesn't matter to 'him'," JT made quote marks in the air to emphasize he was talking about Vincent's alter ego, "how much you screwed up or how much society molds us to be polite and gracious when it comes to love. You said that you never stopped loving Cat and this territorial thing only proves it. Yes, you made a mess, but that doesn't mean you stopped wanting her to be yours. Managing your jealous and winning the girl back _before_ showing it certainly would be the more rational thing to do, but you're not exactly rational when you beast out, right? Don't beat yourself up so hard for this!"

"She said she hates me!" Vincent murmured.

"Good for you!" his friend cheered.

"Are you kidding me?" the tall man asked indignant.

"No, I'm not! Tell me exactly what she said."

The ex-soldier started pacing again, trying to control the will to punch his roommate for telling him that Catherine hating him was a good thing.

He remembered exactly what she said. Oh! How he remembered! He didn't want to, though. And talking about it wouldn't make it feel less painful.

"After I made a complete fool of myself, Catherine kicked me out of her apartment. I left, of course, but not before asking her if she would ever be able to forgive me and she said that she wouldn't, that she hated me because I made her hate me and she couldn't forgive me for it."

"There you go! Don't you see? She's trying to cope with all this! Let's face it, she didn't have the best of times these last few days. Then, you start to harass her when she's still fragile. And don't start, I know you're doing it because you're afraid to have lost her forever," the slight bald man interrupted him before he had time to protest, "but it's a lot to process. Therefore, she hates you for making her go through this. Hate is a passionate emotion, Vincent! It's cliché and all, but hate is too damn close to love to be ignored."

JT made a little pause to clean up his glasses before continue to explain his theory.

"She's allowing herself to feel this hate, she's not trying to repress it because she wants to overcome it! She's trying to get rid of it! It's probably not quite scientific, but sure it's therapeutic! What would you prefer: her spending the rest of your lives hating you and keeping it to herself in order to spare your frail heart until the day she'll explode because you didn't put the toilet seat down or her voicing her disappointment with you now and getting over it so you two can have a fresh start?"

Vincent let his words sink down on him, thinking about his roommate theory. Did she really feel that much for him to do that? To allow such an ugly feeling to fill her heart because she wanted to forgive him?

"There's still hope, then?" he asked cautiously, a little incredulous.

"Apparently, she's as dumb as you are. I certainly wouldn't take you back, if I was in her place. Yes, my thick-headed friend, there's still a lot of hope!" JT concluded with a complacent smile. "Now, if you excuse me, I have an early class. Try to stay inside today, for the sake of our collective sanity! Not only Muirfield is closer than ever, but you just proved that every time you go out, you damage your situation with Cat a little more."

JT took a few more minutes finishing his breakfast and gathering his work materials before leaving, but their talk did wonders to alleviate the heavy feeling on Vincent's heart. When his roommate finally left to work, the bored man looked at the clock, sighing before deciding to take his frustrations on the sandbag. It would be a long day.

It was only 10:10 am. The blonde woman smiled mischievously, observing the skittish lady seating the farther away from the glassed entrance she could. Claire chose that place specifically due to the transparent wall so she could know exactly when Alex would be freaked out enough for her plan to work. Making the nurse wait past the meeting time was the beginning of it. It didn't take long for her to crack, though. The scared woman must have already been on the edge.

Claire approached Alex's table in rapid steps with a concerned face, the day old newspaper with the story of the journalist's death on the cover in her hands. It was crucial to look as panicked as her target was. The other woman looked up at her with alarmed eyes.

"He won't come," the agent said hurriedly.

She made sure to look frantically around, as if she was fearing to be caught.

"I'm sorry, I think you mistook me for someone else," Alex replied.

Claire didn't miss the insecurity on her tone and she had to fight the urge to smile. Such an easy prey!

"Alex, we don't have time to play games! Witmann won't come!" she affirmed, putting the newspaper with the journalist's photo over the table.

The nurse palled instantly. Suicide? That was impossible! Arlin would never do that! He was a fighter, someone that wanted to make difference in the world.

She couldn't believe she was living that nightmare. Her life turned upside down overnight! And now, one of her best friends was dead, after finding out something about what happened with her fiancé.

"W-Who are you? What do you know about this?" the redheaded woman stuttered.

"It wasn't suicide, but we can't talk here! It's not safe! Follow me!" the agent ordered, walking rapidly towards the exit and heading to the desert alley behind the coffee shop.

Alex almost ran after that mysterious woman, completely taken by fear. Now she understood why Vince was so afraid of being found! Arlin did a little digging on that story and ended up dead!

As soon as the blonde woman made sure they were alone, she started to explain what happened.

"Alex, you and Vincent are in danger! The people that killed your friend have eyes everywhere."

"How do you...? What happened?"

"I'm the person your friend contacted to help Vincent. Witmann told me to meet him here today. He told me that you would be here. But whoever is hunting your fiancé killed your friend before we had time to talk. What I need to know is that if you really care about Vincent, if you're really willing to help him. I can help him, Alex! The people I represent can make him normal again."

"I don't know who you are! Why should I believe you?"

"Because you don't have other alternative and I'm telling you the truth. Because we want to help him, just like you. We had already helped others, but it's not easy to find the soldiers that were exposed to the experiment. They're terrified! They think we want to exterminate them and they feed each other's fears. All of the few ones we managed to find had the same paranoia."

"Ot-Others? There a-are others?"

"Yes! And they're all healed now, but it wasn't easy to find them, to convince them that we're only trying to help! My company feels responsible for all that happened to them and we want to correct our mistake. I actually managed to track Vincent down two years ago, but he ran away. Alex, he wouldn't listen to me! Every time I came close to break his barriers, he ended up withdrawing until he finally disappeared and I couldn't find him anymore. It was like someone was influencing him, like someone made him change his mind every time he decided to give my company a chance."

"_No, no, no! She wouldn't do that, would she? She seems so trustworthy!"_ Alex thought in panic. _"But I never really trusted her, did I? It was like a sixth sense!"_

Something must have been written on her facial expression because the blonde woman's eyes widened in recognition.

"You know who this person is, don't you? You know someone is influencing his decisions!" she said in awe.

"I... I... I don't know, I re-really have to think..." Alex babbled.

"I know, Alex! It's too much to process! But we really have no time to waste! I'll give you some time to think alone. Take my card and call me as soon as you decide to help us get to Vincent. Because, if you really care about him, you'll help us. He's not thinking clearly right now," the blonde woman said, handing her a simple white card with only a cell phone number on it. "I have to go now! Please, be safe! And don't stay close to the person that is poisoning Vincent's mind against us. It won't do you any good. Wait until I get out before doing the same. No one can see us together in public. I'm waiting for your call! And know this for sure, there's still hope for him! He can go back to normal!"

The mysterious woman ran to the alley's exit, leaving Alex confused and alarmed, trying to figure out what she should do. It was obvious that the person behind Vince's fear was Catherine and it was even more obvious that he wouldn't believe her if she told him that. He trusted the brunette completely. Sometimes, Alex thought that he trusted the female cop even more than he trusted her, his own fiancée.

The nurse waited a little before getting out of there, as the blonde woman had instructed. She didn't even know her and it was extremely worried for her security. She and the people she represented were trying to make things right, to fix their wrongs. They only wanted to take care of Vince, they had never been a threat to him. His fear was only based on his PTSD.

There was still hope for her fiancé! Vince could be normal again!

But somebody didn't want that to happen. Could it be? Could Catherine Chandler be the one doing all that? Killing people? But she was a cop! Why would she do something like that? Then, just like a bolt of lightning hitting her head, the answer came easily.

To keep Vincent Keller to herself!

**A/N: I love playing with Claire. She's by far one of my most hated characters – you know, those ones you love to hate – and I can be really evil while writing her without worry of being too much OCC. After all, she does work for Muirfield. **

**This is something that would justify Alex's accusations towards Catherine. And bring back hope for Vincent after the last chapter. I'm not a shrink nor I pretend to be, but I think it's a lot more healthy to deal with your feelings than hiding it under the carpet. **

**See ya! ;P**


	9. Mind Tricks

**Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction written for fun. I don't own Beauty and the Beast in any way. **

**Mind Tricks**

Claire wasn't a little bit satisfied to leave that Salter girl alone to deal with Keller, but Marks had called asking her to have dinner with him. She couldn't refuse to see him two nights in a role – specially after canceling their Valentine's dinner – so she had to tell him that she only had time to a couple of drinks before a business meeting.

As much as she didn't trust someone like Alex Salter to do her job, she didn't have many choices. She needed to be on good terms with the good doctor to have access to his lab and watch the progress on his research closely. She gave specific instructions to the nurse on what she had to do, making sure that she would keep Keller sedated until she could come back to finish the job. Even a weak and not very bright woman like her could do that. The agent told her to get in contact as soon as she managed to sedate the creature, among other things. She didn't like to take risks on her job, but she would have to take her chances on that.

Marks was talking with Chandler, the female detective that had thrown the party on their first date. Claire didn't like their proximity. Marks always praised her, saying that she was one of the smartest cops on the precinct. Thus, she had to be extra careful around the dark haired woman and she preferred not having to watch her every move more than necessary. Even so, she made sure to be friendly and wave goodbye before leaving.

Cat smiled and waved back to the couple, truly wishing that Evan and Claire could solve their issues. She could use a little bit of happiness, even if it wasn't her own. When she turned back to her desk, her eyes landed on her phone and she picked it up again. The girl spent the entire day having an internal battle, torn between her disappointment and anger towards Vincent and her regret about the things she said the previous night.

She wanted desperately to call him and apologize for saying those harsh words. Yes, she was angry when she said that, but that wasn't a valid excuse for saying she hated him. Specially because there was nothing more distant to what she felt for him than hate. She didn't even know why she said that. All she knew was that he had hurt her and she wanted to hurt him back. Which was mean, irrational, impulsive and passionate. She wasn't like that. Plus, the tormented expression on his face when those words left her mouth had haunted her for the rest of the night and all day.

But Cat couldn't ignore that Vincent didn't love her the same way she loved him. A love like hers deserved to have the same intensity back. She just couldn't accept being his second choice, being the next best thing. Specially after knowing that Alex had contacted him again. It would be only a matter of time before he went back to his fiancée, leaving her broken hearted again. She sighed, putting the phone back on her desk. That was when it buzzed with the text message tone. Vincent.

The ex-soldier spent most part of his afternoon thinking about what happened to him since he first saw Alex again. True, he was wreck. Catherine's accident made him as emotionally vulnerable as his brother's death. He still couldn't think about it without getting sick of his stomach. He didn't know what he would do if she had...

But she didn't and he was so relieved. His heart sang when he went to see her at the hospital and she smiled. She was waiting for him. Nothing could compare with the way he felt when she said that she accepted him the way he was. He had been so afraid to loose her after she told him about Evan's research.

Then, Alex found him and everything changed. He simply didn't know who he was anymore. He had wronged his ex-fiancée so much and yet she still loved him. He couldn't bare to break her heart again. Suddenly, she started planning their lives together again and he couldn't muster the courage to tell her that they couldn't have that. Mostly because he wanted so much to have it. The only problem was that he didn't want it with Alex.

He loved Catherine, he knew that. Being away from her had been torture, specially knowing that she was hurt. But she rejected him. Again. He was hurt, lonely and confuse. All he needed was love. Catherine's love. But she didn't give it to him.

And Alex was there, offering him an impossible and wonderful life by her side. With her, he had the chance to have everything that it was taken away from him back. He had the chance to redeem himself for what she was forced to face due to his selfishness. Being with Alex again, marrying her as he promised all those years ago, was the right thing to do, it was the only way to repair the ten years of her life he had stolen.

That was why he went to the cabin with Alex. That was why he waited until she dumped him to go back to his true love, Catherine. Deep inside of him, he knew Alex wouldn't accept his animalistic side. He knew she was too fragile, too delicate to handle his darkness. He knew he wasn't the man she loved anymore. He knew she wouldn't want him and would step back. Then, he would be free, he would come out of that weekend with a cleansed soul.

Little did he know that Catherine wouldn't understand how much he needed to give Alex a proper closure. Little did he know that Catherine didn't believe his love, too. He never thought that she was as afraid of not being loved back as he was. That going to the cabin with Alex would seem to her eyes like he was involved with her only because there wasn't any other woman in his life. That he went back to her because Alex wasn't available anymore.

And now, here he was, with his loneliness, his self hating and the unbearable fear to have damaged his relationship with the love of his life in an irreparable way.

His phone started to buzz and he picked it up at the second ring. He waited the whole day for Catherine's call. He thought about calling her to apologize for being an ass a hundred times, but JT thought it would be better to let her make the first move. She needed some time to think things through and calm down. He breathed a sigh of relieve when he heard the phone ringing. His hope was short-lived, though. The caller's ID was not the one he wanted to see.

"Alex? Is that you?"

"Yes, Vince, it's me!" she replied, seeming anxious.

"What happened to you? I've been trying to call you since yesterday! Is everything okay?"

Alex felt ashamed for making him worry about her. She turned off her phone in order to hide her little investigation. Her intention was to call him when she had good news to share. She did had good news in the end, although it hadn't happened the way she thought it would. But she knew he wouldn't believe her. She felt awful for what she had to do and she had to reassure herself again that it was for the best.

"No, Vince, it's not! I need your help! I'm in the Beau Monde Hotel, room 305. Please, come quickly!"

The war veteran went frantic. The only thing he could think about was the journalist's death. Muirfield had found her!

"Okay, I'm on my way!"

The nurse hung up, holding the sedative the blonde woman had given to her earlier with determination. That wasn't the first time she made a decision for Vince. She had helped him to heal once and she would do it again, no matter what she had to do. Nothing and no one would stop her to make him whole again.

Vincent knew he should call Catherine, but he didn't dare. After his last display of total inability to break the barrier that his stupidity built between them, he wasn't sure how much more of his life's mess she could take.

And there was still her belief that he only went back to her because Alex rejected him lingering above his head. If he called her asking for help to save Alex again, it would only confirm that he was ready to ignore everything in order to be with his ex.

Which it wasn't true. Yes, he still loved her. He would always do. But it wasn't a romantic feeling anymore. He felt for her the same way he felt for JT. She had a special place in his heart, he loved her like a sister. And that was all.

Vincent felt responsible for her, though. For dragging her to his dangerous world without a previous warning. Her life was in danger because of him and he needed to save her. He just wanted to correct the mistake he made by reconnecting with her. But Catherine didn't trust him anymore and he couldn't risk to damage their relationship even more by putting the two women together again.

The war veteran left a note to JT, informing where he was. He decided not to call his friend because the first thing he would do was calling Catherine, the exact person he didn't want to know about that. At least, not until he knew what exactly was Alex's problem.

When he finally got to the redheaded woman, she looked terrified, throwing herself in his arms. He was worried, but it didn't seem like there was anything out of ordinary around. Maybe she had seen the newspaper's story of her friend's death. Although, there was a strange smell coming from her. That was the last coherent thought he had before the world went black.

Alex took his phone and texted Catherine. The blonde woman wanted to know who was the person interfering in Vincent's decision, but Alex was too afraid to tell her. She didn't have any proof and Catherine was a cop. The brunette woman had access to resources that could endanger them all and Alex didn't want to loose the only link she had to the company that had Vince's cure.

The company's employee – Alex forgot to ask her name again because she was too focused on their plan – had an idea to free her fiancé from that woman's evil influence. It was dangerous, but it sounded very smart. The only way to make Vince see who Catherine really was and expose all her wrong doings was to confront her in front of him.

Her blonde friend didn't want to leave her alone to deal with that problem, but they found another soldier to help and she was going to contact him. She promised to be back in two hours, though. Time enough to trap the detective and for Vince wake up from the sedative's first effect. The nurse expected some kind of answer from Vince's handler, but nothing came. She worried that their plan could not go as they plan it.

On the precinct, Cat's eyes went wide and her heartbeat went sky high when she read the text.

**I need your help. Alex in danger. Beau Monde Hotel, room 305. Quick. **

There wasn't any explanation, but she already knew what was the danger. Muirfield! They found Alex, she was in trouble and Vincent went to help her as his heroic nature required. But helping her would put him right in his persecutor's hands. She didn't think twice before changing to protector mode, grabbing her coat and running to her car. No matter how hurt she was, the simple thought of the atrocities his enemy had in store for him made her entire body tremble.

Vincent's eyes opened and he saw Alex hovering above him. His vision was blurry and unfocused. He realized that she had laid him down in a couch and tried to move, but his body didn't obey his brain's command. Despite the confuse state his mind was at that moment, he remembered that she had drugged him and there was only one explanation for that.

"Alex... " he forced himself to say.

She caressed his face with a sweet smile as she spoke tenderly.

"Shhh, Vince! It's okay! You need help! I know you think you can trust Catherine, but she's..."

He was in panic and he could feel his adrenaline level increasing, but his body was immobilized.

"You need... to get... out of here!"

"Oh, no, no, Vince! It's okay! They'll protect us!" she assured him, trying to calm him down.

He felt the beast inside of him trying to escape the sedative's restrainment. He didn't know what could happen in his state. He wasn't in control. He tried to argue with her again.

"Alex, come on! Someone may have come to you and say they can help, but do you really think I would live my life like this if I had any option?"

Her voice was sweet and soothing, but she stood firm in her beliefs.

"I think there's people in your life who finds it convenient to keep you trapped! So they don't have to share you! But they're not helping you!"

His animalistic side was fighting the drug in his system and it got even more agitated at Alex's statement. The "Beast" knew what she meant with that.

"You mean Catherine?"

"She doesn't want to see you better!"

"No, she wants to help me, okay? And even if I don't change, she accepts me for who I am and that's why I trust her!"

"No, Vince! She's trying to isolate you! She wants you to remain like this so you won't leave her side! She's filling your mind with lies! She knows they're healing the others and she wants to keep you away from them!"

"Others? Alex, what are you talking about? There's no one else like me. I'm the only one that survived!"

"No, Vince! They're helping all the others and she doesn't want that to happen to you!"

Alex wasn't listening to him. Whoever had contacted her had done a good job making her believe that Catherine was the enemy. Nothing he could say would change her mind.

Suddenly, his enhanced nostrils captured Catherine's scent. She was there! Going straight to a trap! JT must have called her, anyway. His bestial side roared in his ears, fighting the drug harder, empowered by the need to protect her. He heard her steps getting closer to the door while she loaded her gun. He needed to distract Alex, to avoid the confrontation.

"What did you gave me? Etorphine hydrochloride?"

"Are you okay?" she asked worried.

"You know the dehydrating effects! Alex, I need something to drink!"

Cat was surprised, listening to them from outside the door. Apparently, Alex had drugged Vincent. She heard the tall woman saying that she would get some water and took the opportunity to enter the room when her footsteps indicated that she was in the other room.

Vincent forced himself to sit up using all his inhuman strength while Catherine reached for him, trying to help him to get up. Alex came out of the bathroom instantly with a gun in her hands, pointing it to the other woman.

The ex-soldier felt his heartbeat increasing at each passing minute. His animalistic side was fighting to control his body. Alex didn't know what her actions were doing to him because she was too focused on Catherine to notice the yellow glow in his eyes.

"Just who I was expecting! Put your gun on the ground slowly!" the redheaded woman ordered, shaking her gun in a menacing way and Catherine obeyed, worried about Vincent. "Kick it over to me! We wanted her here to make you see how badly she's influencing you, Vince!"

The hazel eyed woman obeyed again and Alex grabbed the gun, throwing it on the bed and positioning herself with her back to it, right in front of them.

"We? Who talked to you, Alex?" she asked, looking at the other woman warily.

"Were you the one that told Catherine to come here?" the war veteran questioned astonished.

"She didn't give me her name, but she gave me a little something to protect myself until she gets here! She's on her way right now!" Alex replied, ignoring her fiancé's comment.

Vincent was on the verge of changing and he could feel the anger of the monster inside of him with the threat to the woman he loved.

"Alex, please! You gotta let us go!" he begged, feeling his control slipping.

"No, no, Vince! They'll make you better! They'll make you normal again!"

Catherine had enough of that woman and her lack of good sense.

"They're going to cut him open and study him!" she stated dryly.

"That's a lie, Vince! They're the ones that made you like this and they're the ones that can fix you! I know you think she's helping, but she's just getting on the way! She has been poisoning you against them!"

"Actually, it was my mother that made him!" the dark haired female revealed in a hard tone.

"Your mother?" Alex asked incredulous.

"Yes, she worked for them and they killed her for it! Right in front of my eyes!" Catherine said, her seriousness never faltering.

"No, they wouldn't do that! Is that why you're doing this? To hide your mother's dirty secrets?" the nurse half yelled.

Alex was getting hysterical and that wasn't a good combination with the gun on her hands. The fog in Vincent's mind and body was making difficult to control his alter ego and he could barely think straight.

"Alex, I know that you're trying to do what's best, but that's not it. Someone told you lies. There may never be a cure for me."

"No, that's what she wants you to believe!" Alex yelled, pointing the gun to Catherine.

Seeing the gun pointed directly to Catherine's heart broke the last bit of the sedative's restraining effect on Vincent's bestial side and he changed with a menacing roar, taking a step towards Alex.

It all happened in a oneiric kind of motion. Everything happened too fast and too slow at the same time. Alex could see every movement, hear every word, but there wasn't enough time to stop what was happening.

The tall woman's hands were sweaty due to her anxiety while she was trying to keep her hold on the trigger steady. That whole situation was too tense for her. She just wanted everything to end so she could take Vince to be fixed. She was already tense and scared, but when the creature took a step in her direction, she got terrified.

"No! Stay away from me!" she screamed.

She took several steps back in a defensive reflex and stumbled on the bed. She lost her balance and held tighter to the gun, but her fingers went too deep on the trigger.

Time seemed to slowed down even more while Alex saw the bullet getting out of the gun, heading straight to the creature's direction.

**A/N: Wow! Longest chapter ever !**

**I'm not sure about this chapter. I really, really, really don't want to make Alex the villain, despite hating the character. So if you think I did a poor job showing her point of view I would like to know – as long as your opinion remains as constructive criticism.**

**I know Vincent only changed to save Alex, but that was another thing that bothered me. Even drugged, don't you guys think that Beast – not dumbass Vincent – would be just a little bit upset that his mate was being threatened with a gun? **

**People may argue that Vincent knew Alex wouldn't really pull the trigger, but she was clearly hysterical and no one can predict what a person can do in such a state of mind. **

**Anyone else in cloud nine after last night's episode? Anyone else worrying sick about JT and Vincent after seeing the promo for next one?**

**See ya! ;P**


	10. Blood

**Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction written for fun. I don't own Beauty and the Beast in any way. **

**Blood**

"No! Vincent!" Catherine yelled.

Three things happened simultaneously. Alex felt backwards on the bed, letting the gun slip from her hands, Catherine threw herself on Vincent's beast form, knocking him down and the bullet hit the female in her upper arm.

Catherine fell over Vincent due to their collision. The scent of her blood paralyzed Vincent's inhuman form for a few seconds, time enough to feel little drops of her rich red and precious blood dripping on his face, while the dark haired woman screamed in pain.

"Oh, my God!" Alex exclaimed shocked.

She never really had any intention to shoot. She just wanted to scare her rival enough to make her talk. Seeing the crimson liquid soaking Catherine's coat and knowing that she was the one that harmed her and seeing the terrifying and deformed face of the creature that was her fiancé had a freezing effect on her and she just stayed where she was, half seating on the bed with wide eyes and mouth agape. She simply couldn't move.

The same didn't apply to Vincent. His mind, already confused by the sedative still running through his body, had chaotic thoughts. A part of him knew that there was no threat coming from the woman before them, but his basic instincts told him to protect his wounded mate. The last one won. In a flash, he was on his feet, roaring menacingly, ready to attack the aggressor.

"Vincent! No! I'm okay!" Catherine yelled scared.

His altered form turned automatically towards her, tilting his head slightly in confusion. Blood was still oozing profusely through the hole in her coat, but she was already getting up, holding her injured arm in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

"Vincent, it's not her fault! She's not in her right mind!" his mate reasoned with him, in a soothing tone, despite the obvious pain wrote on her face.

He was still enraged, but stopped advancing towards Alex, only letting a low roar of fury escape his throat. Catherine wanted him to stop and he couldn't deny her anything. She was talking to him in that tender tone that had always been able to bring him back to his right mind, to calm him down.

"Shhh, Vincent! It's okay! It's okay!" the petite female said again, reaching up to his face with her good arm and placing her hand on it. "I'm not really hurt! It was superficial! She's not going to harm us, okay? She's just scared!"

He looked at her questioningly and she showed the wound. Yes, the bullet passed by her, only piercing her skin in an ugly gash. There was a hole in the wall behind her where the bullet had landed. But she was hurt, nonetheless, and they needed to get out of that place to take care of her.

"Y-You ca-can control i-it?" Alex stuttered whisper sounded in the silent room.

"_It_?" the other woman repeated as a question, her voice full of outrage. "This is Vincent, Alex, the guy you affirm to love so much! It's him, not it! It doesn't matter what happened to him, he's still the same man you know. Even if we never find a cure, he's still a person."

"And you'll just accept that? Just accept him the way that he is?"

A ring echoed through the corridor, startling Catherine and calling Vincent's attention. The elevator. Muirfield's agent had arrived.

"Vincent, we need to get out of here, do you hear me?" the wounded girl said, urgently. "I need you to knock down whoever is coming to get us. You're the only one here fast enough to take the agent by surprise, not giving any time to react. Just knock down, not killing. If you kill somebody here and someone finds out Alex was the one in this room, they'll link it to you. Do you understand? Can you do that?"

Alex watched in wonder how the creature seemed to nod slightly as if it was understanding everything the detective was saying. Her fiancé's deformed alter ego literally fled out of the room in a blur and seconds later both women heard a thug on the corridor, clearly a body collapsing on the ground.

Vincent entered the room in that same impossible speed, caring a blonde woman in his arms while Catherine urged Alex to get up, taking her gun and pushing the redheaded woman out of the room. There was something familiar about that Muirfield agent, but her long hair was covering her face and the petite woman didn't waste their precious time really looking at her. They need to get out of there fast. They didn't know if the agent had back up, but they wouldn't wait to find out.

They went to the rooftop and Vincent jumped to the nearest building's roof caring the girls, one at a time. Although he was extremely fast, it was still a risk to waste time, but they didn't have the option to simply walk out the hotel because Vincent was in Beast form and there could be more Muirfield agents around. They climbed down the fire escape in record time and ran carefully to Catherine's car.

Vincent's adrenaline was still running freely through his body, kicking the sedative's remains out. He was trying to reign his animalistic self, breathing deeply, trying to calm down so he could be useful. Knocking the female agent had been easy and helpful enough, but Catherine was in no condition to drive to the warehouse with that wounded arm and Alex was in shock, unable to cooperate. When they finally reached the car, the war veteran had managed to change back to his human form, but he was fighting so hard to remain in control that drops of sweat were dripping down his forehead, mingling with Catherine's blood, creating a terrifying picture.

They climbed in the car. Vincent took the driver's seat with Catherine by his side and Alex on the back seat. He speed up through New York's crowded streets the fastest he could. As soon as they entered the car, Catherine speed dialed JT's number.

"Are you home?" she barked when he picked up at the third ring.

The glassed man was so anxious that he didn't even register her rude tone.

"Yes, I just arrived! Alex is in trouble and Vincent went after her."

"I know. I found them. I need you to get out of there and stay away for a few days. We don't have any other place to take her and she can't be trusted. She turned us in to Muirfield," she said slowly.

Alex looked at her, gradually coming out of her stupor and feeling her cheeks burn in shame when she heard the other woman voicing her opinion about her. Her jaded mind was starting to catch up with reality, finally seeing things as they really were. The process probably had been triggered by the stress of that awful situation. She knew that there were no excuses for her actions and yet Catherine had protected her after being shot by her, (sure it was an accident, but it had happened) stopping the creature before it attacked her.

She wondered who was the person on the other side of the line. She didn't know that there was another person on Vincent's life besides her. In fact, there was very little she knew about. He never really talked about his current life and she hadn't bothered to ask, too caught up in the euphoria of having him back on her life.

Vincent winced, anticipating his best friend's reaction. And sure enough, he could hear the incredulous yell on the other side of the line. Probably it wasn't necessary to have super senses to hear it.

"What?"

"Yeah! But someone had clearly influenced her. She's almost hysterical right now. I'll explain it all later, it doesn't matter right now. I just don't want her to find out about you. Do you have a place to stay?"

"Yeah, don't worry! I can come up with something to say to Sarah and stay with her for a couple of days. I actually think she'll like that my place has to be rat disinfected."

"Good! We'll be there in thirty minutes," she informed, hanging up.

Her arm was hurting like hell and she was feeling a little dizzy due to the blood loss and all the previous tension, but she remained stoically silent, flinching every time the car jumped with a bump on the road.

Vincent was worrying sick about her condition, gripping the steering wheel so tightly in order to keep focused and hold himself together to stay human that his knuckles were white. Catherine hadn't looked or talked to him since they left the hotel and he could only guess what was in her mind, although he had a pretty good idea.

Alex saw the city's industrial area coming closer through the car's windows. They stopped in front of an old abandoned warehouse. Catherine and Vince got out, telling her to follow them. Her fiancé tried to help the petite injured woman to walk, but she flinched away from his touch, walking rapidly towards the door and leaving them behind, entering the building as if it was something usual and ordinary.

They passed through an enormous dark hall, trying to catch up with the dark haired girl's pace. Alex had no idea why they went to that place instead of a house where they could tend to her wound. She was about to voice her concern when the other woman opened a heavy door, revealing a wide space that resembled a living room and that was when she understood. Vince lived there.

He fled past them, going straight to a low cabinet, taking medical supplies out of it and placing them on a small table next to it. Catherine stood by her side without saying a single word, holding tightly to her bleeding arm. She looked pale and tired. The blood loss was starting to charge its price. After gathering all that it was needed to clean and to suture her arm, Vince ran back to them, taking the shorter woman's hand, pulling it a little to motion her to sit, but she shoved him away abruptly.

"Don't touch me!" she ordered coldly in a low voice.

His shocked expression was full of regret and guilt.

"Please, Catherine, you're hurt! We have to take care of your arm!" he pleaded in a desperate tone.

"Alex can do that!" the female detective replied, showing a fire that didn't match her weakened state.

Her words snapped the nurse's brain out of its numb state. She was still too shocked with the latest events, trying to process what had just happened and cope with the fact that she had actually harmed someone like that.

"I... I... No, I..." the redheaded woman tried to say, but the words got stuck in her throat.

"Catherine, you know she won't be able to do it. She's in shock. There's no way she'll be able to help you. I know you won't go to a hospital. Please, let me help!" Vince reasoned, almost begging.

Her stony expression faltered a little when he mentioned a hospital and its implied complications and the war veteran took advantage of her momentary hesitation.

"Please, let me see it! Let me help!" he repeated in a soft whisper, as if he was willing a small child to cooperate.

"No!" she replied stubbornly. "I'll ask Evan to do it!"

Alex saw his features changing instantly. Her words had the same effect of a slap on his face. Shock, hurt and another emotion that she couldn't quite place was written all over him.

"You know you'll pass out of blood loss before getting to him. Even if you get to him, how would you explain this?" he said with such a great sadness that Alex felt her eyes burning with pity. "Will... will you t-tell him?"

Catherine's whole body responded to his question. Her posture softened and she looked at him astonished.

"Of course not! How can you think that?" she whispered, visibly hurt.

"I don't! Please, let me help you!" he said again, touching her wounded arm with his fingertips.

There was something different in his touch, something both intimate and tentative. Catherine waggled her head slightly and closed her eyes, obviously having an internal battle. Then, she walked slowly towards the table and sat, reaching up to take her coat off, but the gesture made her hiss in pain.

The former doctor ran to her side, taking the task off her hands, carefully peeling her garments off her arm, letting only half of her upper body clothed.

He had imagined seeing her perfect naked skin countless times, had saw himself opening her blouse to reveal her exquisite form exactly like he was doing at that moment on so many lonely nights, but now he couldn't look at her without feeling sick. In his daydreams, her glorious skin had been displayed to his adoration. He never imagined a scene like that. Her crimson blood had tinted the blouse's arm in a gruesome matter and it had started to pool down the length of her arm while she tried to maintain a blank expression. Her pale face and her suppressed hiss told him the entire tale of her pain, though.

He quickly anesthetized her arm and started to work on cleaning the wound. She turned her head to his opposite direction, tilting it down in order to hide her face, but the other woman could clearly see the silver path of her silent tears since her face was turned towards her. She wasn't in pain anymore due to the anesthetic and she hadn't cried before, therefore, her tears could only come from her emotional state.

The taller woman kept looking at her in fascination for a while until Vince took his hand off her briefly, calling Alex's attention to him. It lasted only two seconds, but she saw it. He had taken his hand off his work to wipe away his tears that were certainly blurring his vision.

Vince was crying! Silently, just like her!

Suddenly, Alex felt embarrassed and it wasn't due to her shame for what she had caused. She felt like how someone felt when seeing a very private thing, something that no one was supposed to see.

He worked on her arm for a long time and the nurse noticed that he was being extra careful, taking his time to fix the wound in a way that it would let little to no scar in her skin after healed. The atmosphere around them was tense, full of unsaid words. Anyone would sense it. Finally, the dressing was done and he gave her some pills, saying that she should take them if she had pain after the anesthetic wears off.

"Thank you," she murmured in a hoarse voice, putting her clothes back with his help.

He gave a little nod in acknowledgment, but didn't say anything. He wore the expression of a tortured man, someone that had seen more horrors that an average person could handle.

"I have to go now. You both stay in the warehouse until I settle everything. I'll keep in touch," she whispered, still hiding her face behind her hair and looking down.

The petite woman made her way quickly out of the building, running towards her car and speeding away, wanting nothing more than going home, where she would be able to cry all her misery without hiding from anyone.

As soon as he heard the car taking off, Vincent ran in inhuman speed to his bedroom without a single word, leaving Alex positively perplex behind. She heard a loud roar and ran after him, not knowing exactly what she was supposed to do.

He was kneeling down on the ground with his body half way thrown at a bed. His shoulders were shaking with sobs while he cried in that painful and silent way.

"Alex, please, leave me alone," he managed to whisper between his sobs.

"Vince, I'm so sorry. I..." she said, trying to comfort him, but he cut her off.

"I know you do. Just leave, please!" he asked gently again.

"Vince..." she tried again.

He jumped in front of her so fast that she took several steps behind, terrified. His face was deformed again and his eyes were glowing in a frightening yellow tone.

"I said get away! Leave me alone!" he yelled, his voice distorted, sounding more animal than human.

While she ran back downstairs, he let out a piercing roar, a sound so loud and full of pain that it resembled an agonizing animal, falling to his knees again and curling up like a ball on the ground. A distorted sound left his altered throat so lowly that only his enhanced ears would be able to hear, a weak lament.

"Catherine!"

**A/N: I don't have much to say about this chapter. Catherine throwing herself in front of Vincent to save him sounded like a good inversion of their papers to me. Also, her wound couldn't be serious because she can't go to a hospital. I'm proud of it. **

**See ya! ;P**


	11. Of Spice and Truth

**Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction written for fun. I don't own Beauty and the Beast in any way. **

**Of Spice and Truth**

Alex woke up on an unfamiliar bed puzzled. She had curled up on the couch, after running out of Vince's bedroom. She was scared to know that he had changed into that _thing_, but now she knew better than to run away. He never had tried to hurt her in that horrific form and she wouldn't take the chance of being found by Muirfield's agents again. After hours waiting for him to calm down and have a chance to talk, the tension of the day worn her out and she ended up falling asleep right there.

Vince must have came down at some point and put her there. She was confused because that wasn't his bedroom. She thought about Catherine calling someone and telling whoever it was on the other end to stay away. So that should be that someone's bed.

Carefully, she went out the room noticing that it was on the same level that the living room. There was a delicious smell of coffee in the air and her stomach twisted with hunger. Vince was at the table, messing with a bowl of cereal without really eating. He didn't raise his head when she approached, but acknowledged her.

"Good morning! There's coffee on the machine and bagels beside it. Feel free to take whatever you want from the fridge," he whispered gently.

"Thanks! Do you want me to make you some bacon?" she asked sweetly, trying to find a comfortable place to start a conversation.

"No, thanks, I'm good! I don't eat bacon!" he answered in the same quiet tone.

"_Huh? He never left the house without chomping down at least three slices of bacon!" _Alex thought confused.

She didn't want to start their talk with a meaningless topic as his change of taste for breakfast so she let it go and went to grab a cup of coffee and a bagel. She sat in front of him with a smile, trying to lighten up the atmosphere.

"Okay! I'll just settle with the bagels, then!"

He looked miserable, with dark circles under his eyes and tense shoulders. But the worst of all was his eyes, his poufy bloodshot eyes and the sadness on them. He must have cried for a long time the previous night. Alex already saw that expression on him once. It happened when his brothers died, turning his world upside down.

"Vince, we..."

"Alex..."

They started to speak at the same time. The tall woman smiled brightly, but he didn't correspond.

"Go ahead," she urged him, happy that he decided to talk.

"I'm sorry for lying to you. If I had been honest, you wouldn't feel like you had to find things for yourself and you wouldn't have believe in a stranger over me."

The nurse felt her cheeks burning in embarrassment. She made a mess, not letting him talk to her and running away when she found out about his secret. Instead of trying to understand what was happening to him, she simply cut him off and did things the way she saw fit, without thinking of consequences.

"It's not like that..." she started to say, taking his hands, but he refused her touch, getting up.

"I didn't sleep very well last night and I'm really tired so I'm going to take a nap, okay? Feel free to do whatever you want. Just don't go outside, please," Vince said before walking away, not letting any space to argue.

Alex thought about going after him, but it wouldn't be a good thing to talk about their problems when he was tired. She spent the day watching boring shows on TV and walking around his improvised house. He didn't leave his bedroom the entire day and she was starting to worry. He needed to eat something more substantial than the almost untouched bowl of cereal from breakfast. But the entire day passed by without him coming to talk to her.

Cat was exhausted. She had spent most part of the previous night crying and tormenting herself thinking about the irony of her life. She spent her whole adult life avoiding relationships, creating barriers to defend herself from heartbreak and, when she met a man she thought was worth open up for, she ended up having the disappointment of a lifetime.

It hadn't been easy to go through her day. Tess took a day off, probably to find a way to cope with the fact that her best friend _and_ partner was tampering with evidence, and she didn't know what to do about it. She wanted to win her trust back, but she couldn't tell her friend about the real reason for her actions. The brunette feared to have ruined their friendship forever. Her arm was hurting like crazy and she had a major headache due to her half insomniac night.

The injured girl stared at her phone, innocently resting on the nightstand. She spent the day on the edge, both dreading and wishing for a call from Vincent. He hadn't called, though, and he was alone in the warehouse with his fiancée. Knowing that simple fact made her feel even more miserable because she always knew that, when they figured out a way to overcome Muirfield's threat, the man _she loved_ would go back to _his love_. That didn't mean she accepted it, though. Just thinking about it made her want to curl up in a ball and never leave her apartment again.

The worst of all was that the chaotic situation of her love life made her loose her faith in herself. Over the years as a detective, she became accustomed to trust her instincts and to listen to her first impression. And everything inside of her told her that she should believe Vincent, that he was telling her the truth about his feelings, that he made a mistake in a weak moment and that she really wasn't his second choice or a mere backup plan. But she came to the conclusion that her gut feeling had to be wrong, seeing the way he was always so eager to run to Alex, no matter what the risks were.

She sighed, turning the lights down and thinking that she would have to take the fake documents JT gave her – she didn't know how he got them and didn't asked – to them in the next day. It would be painful to give the documents and tickets to him, but there was really not many options. Plus, she preferred not to witness their happily ever after while she mourned her love's loss. It would be better to everyone.

Vincent couldn't believe in his ears. JT couldn't be telling the truth. It was just a cruel prank. That was the only option for what he was telling him.

"What do you mean, Catherine told you to make me fake documents so I can run away with Alex?" he yelled on the phone, his eyes flashing gold.

"Okay, calm down! It would be really hard to explain it to you if you beast out and smash the phone, big guy!" JT placated him, sighing. "I'm just telling you this so you can be prepared and don't overreact when Cat actually give you the documents. All you need to do is tell her that you're not going anywhere with Alex, that you want to stay in New York because that's where she is."

"But she..."

"But nothing, Vincent! She's hurt, and not only emotionally now, as I understand! Quite a mess Ms. Salter managed to make, by the way! I tried to tell her that you won't leave, but she didn't listen to me because she's positive that you still love Alex. She wants you to be happy so she's swallowing her pride and giving you a way out. It's really selfless, if you ask me, and I would be proud to have a girl that cares that much about me in my life. So you better take that in consideration before freaking out and doing something stupid as starting a fight over it. She needs to hear it from you, not from me. That's the opportunity you've been waiting for to prove yourself to her," the professor clarified vehemently.

"You think so? Even after the shooting?" Vincent asked hopeful.

"Okay, what part of Cat taking a shot to protect your sorry ass you didn't understand yet? Yes, she was really upset and sad when we met, but her eyes still shine when she talks about you so..."

"Really?" he said, smiling.

"Okay, take this stupid smile off of your face. You need to talk with Ms. Troublemaker downstairs!" his friend commented.

"I'm not smiling!" Vincent affirmed, smiling like a fool.

"Yeah, yeah! I gotta go now! You better clarify things with Alex before Cat gets there!" JT ordered.

"Okay, I will!" he said, hanging up.

The war veteran sighed, knowing that JT was right. He needed to talk with his ex-fiancée, but it wouldn't be an easy conversation. He wanted to do it the day before. Actually, he waited for her at breakfast with that single purpose, but as soon as she entered the room, his inner monster wriggled in anger with the image of Catherine's injured arm in his mind and he realized that he was still too emotional due to the latest events and that wouldn't be a good time.

She was busy in the kitchen when he came downstairs. The food was actually smelling good. She turned around as soon as she heard him approaching with a sweet smile.

"I was going to call you! You didn't eat anything yesterday and I thought that we could use a good food," she said cheerfully.

Alex was trying really hard to compensate her mistake and to cheer Vince up a little. She wanted to erase that awful sight of Catherine's bloody arm from her memory. She had thought a lot in her time alone in that unfamiliar place and saw how wrong she had been from the beginning. She had been selfish and childish, not letting him explain things and assuming that their relationship would continue from the point where it stopped, forgetting that nine years had passed and he had gone through a lot.

"Alex, you don't have to do that!" the dark haired man protested.

"Oh, it's nothing, I wasn't doing anything! Look, I made chilly!"

His face fell and he felt really guilty. She was just trying to make him feel better, but it was having the opposite effect.

"Alex, I can't eat chilly," he murmured shyly.

"Since when? It's your favorite Mexican food!" she said astonished.

Why did she have to be so pushy when he was so emotionally unstable? He didn't want to have an argument over something as stupid as Mexican food because his nerves were already shaken up! He took a deep breath and let his body fall heavily on the nearest chair, answering in a tired tone.

"Since I became a genetic altered monster that can't stand spicy food because I actually feel like my tongue and throat are on fire when I eat it due to my enhanced senses."

The redheaded woman paled, regretting her words. Again. It seemed like everything she did lately was hurt Vince. She turned off the stove, forgetting about the food and sat in front of him.

"I'm sorry, Vince! I didn't want... I don't know why I said that! It's just that..." she tried to explain.

"I know, Alex! You don't have to explain anything. I'm sorry for being so blunt, I don't want you to think I blame you for what happened. I'm the one at fault here. I got caught up in the fantasy of a life where I could be normal again. I hate myself so much for what I am that I just took the first opportunity to get away from it without measuring the consequences. For me _and_ for you. I'm really sorry about that!" he said sincerely.

"We all make mistakes, Vince. It's human nature. I never thought some day I would shoot someone," she reasoned.

"Yeah, but my mistakes made you shoot Catherine so I think that the fault still lies on me," the ex-soldier whispered.

Alex didn't miss the pain in his voice when he mentioned that dire event. The sadness in his eyes seemed ancient and permanent. That was the first time the nurse had a glimpse of how deeply hurt he was and how much he despised what he had became. She felt ashamed for the way she treated him.

"_It's him, not it!"_ Catherine's words echoed in her mind.

"Hey, remember when we were in med school and we promised to not take the blame for things we couldn't control? You're doing it now! You have to let go of all this," she said in a soothing tone and smiling.

"I told you that I had issues, Alex, that I couldn't be exposed. This is not something that you just let go." Vincent whispered softly.

The blue eyed woman turned her head and looked to the glassed wall, letting her eyes following its irregular half tinted patterns. The man in front of her was someone that took the world's weight on his shoulders. There was a heaviness on him, a sorrow that she didn't understand or wanted to face. Of course, she knew that his brothers death had took a price on his happiness, but the emotion on his eyes told her about other things and other worlds that she didn't even know that existed.

"This isn't you, Vince!" she affirmed, but there was no conviction on her voice anymore.

"Is that why you pushed the limits when we were together? Because you think I'm not myself?"

"It wasn't like that. I never thought I was pushing the limits. Actually, I didn't know where the limits were."

Vincent just looked at her for a long time, realizing something that hadn't occurred to him before. Their mutual delusion ran deeper than he thought. He should give JT a trophy or something like that because he was right again.

"So, in the end, it's not just the DNA mutation that you can't handle, isn't it? It's me, Alex, the man I am today. It's how much I had changed and the fact that I'm not the man you fell in love all those years ago anymore," he explained carefully.

He was trying hard not to hurt her feelings, but he needed to make her see past her illusion, past their shared history. She needed to see Vincent. He wasn't Vinnie or Vince anymore.

She didn't say anything, just let the tears that were burning her eyes fall. That was exactly what she was avoiding to think and feel since the first time she saw him again. She wasn't blind or stupid. She knew the man before her wasn't the same – and quite frankly, she knew she wasn't the same, too – and that reality was suffocating.

She had wasted ten years of her life pursuing a dream, a false image that existed only in her mind. Therefore, she chose to close her eyes to what was right in front of her and created a world where those ten lonely years made sense and were worthy. The alternative was just too cruel to embrace. Because the truth was that she pulled herself out of the world to live in a fantasy and to keep faithful to a love that didn't exist anymore. A love that died the day Vincent Keller was buried before her.

"I... I'm not... not hungry anymore. I guess I'm going to lay down for a while, okay?" she stuttered timidly.

"I'm sorry, Alex!" he said again, pity evident in his tone.

"I know! I'm sorry, too!" she answered with a weak smile, going to her borrowed room and laying down to cry the loss of a beautiful world.

Vincent endured her tears with a heavy heart. Maybe he was being selfish again for not going to comfort her, but he couldn't will himself to do so. She needed to heal by herself and to cope with her own problems.

Yes, he had wronged her once more, feeding up her illusion and making her believe they still had something because he was too coward and selfish. He thought only on himself when she shared her fantasy world with him. Now, she was the one paying the price for his recklessness with the end of her hope. Again.

But it was done and, as much as he regretted it, there was nothing he could do to change the past. He could only make it right in the present. And the right thing to do was showing her that there was no future for them together.

**A/N: Why no one ever said that Alex hadn't accepted Vincent even before seeing Beast was something that always puzzled me. **

**She simply refused to know the man he's now, pushing him to go back to the man he was before. And still, Vincent threw on Catherine's face that Alex was better than her because she only saw him as Vinnie. **

**Sad!**

**See ya! ;P**


	12. A Tale of Fire

**Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction written for fun. I don't own Beauty and the Beast in any way. **

**A Tale of Fire**

Vincent ran downstairs as soon as he heard the car stopping a few yards away from the warehouse. Thanks to JT's tip on Catherine's thoughts earlier, he had time to plan what he would do with the documents she intended to give him. He positioned himself in a strategic point of the living room, pretending to be reading some random research and waited for her arrival.

The war veteran had decided to just play it cool.

Her heartbeat was frantic and he almost lost his resolve before her anxiety, wanting nothing more than to take her in his arms and soothe her. Too much had happened between them, though, and he needed to give her space and earn her trust back before having impulsive displays of affection. He already made the mistake of assuming she would take him back with open arms after a major screw up.

Catherine spotted Vincent, calmly reading something. The lights made shadows on the side of his face opposite to her, making him look even more mysterious and handsome and her heart constricted in her chest. It was unfair of him to look so devastatingly desirable exactly when she would have to let him go. She slowed her pace unconsciously, fearing their farewell. As in a cue, he lifted his head and looked at her with furrowed eyebrows.

She cleaned her throat, afraid that her voice would sound hoarse and reveal her emotional turmoil, and greeted him, "Hey!"

Now he was worried. She was walking slowly towards him and her heart skipped a few times. Was she okay? Maybe the blood loss had been more serious than he thought. Why hadn't he been more careful about that? He couldn't avoid the urgency in his voice when he answered.

"Hey! How are you feeling? How is your arm?"

"Oh, it's fine, thanks!" the brunette said nonchalantly with a nervous smile and picking up her pace to cover the final steps towards him faster. "Here!"

She handed him an envelop, avoiding his eyes. Their fingers brushed when he took it and hers were cold. Although he already knew the answer, he had planned that scenario carefully so he questioned, looking surprised.

"What's this?"

"Hum... JT managed to get some fake ID's. Don't ask me how. I really don't want to know. Yours is inside, as long as tickets to Wichita. You'll have to change bus in Des Moines."

"Thanks! It's very kind of you!" he said, sighing heavily.

Very deliberately, he turned around and threw the envelop on a trash bin close to the wall that Catherine hadn't noticed before, perhaps because she was too distracted by him. It happened so fast and fluidly that, for a second, she thought that he had calculated it. She berated herself for the silly thought, feeling her cheeks burning. She couldn't avoid the warm sensation that came along with the surprise that ran through her body with his gesture, though.

"Vincent!"

"What? I told you I'm not going anywhere. It's not my fault if you weren't listening," he commented, as if he hadn't done anything unusual. Then, he turned to her with a smug smile and finished, "Well, technically, anyway! If you decide to get out of New York some day, I won't have the option to stay, but I won't be breaking my promise because I was implying that I want to be where you are. But I'm sure you understood that."

She stared at him with her mouth slightly ajar, beyond surprised, not knowing what to say or do. She prepared herself all day to see him leaving. She was sure he would take the opportunity. That was his way out of the life he hated. And he wasn't taking it!

"Alex's in JT's room!" he informed, trying to keep a composed façade.

Her bewildered expression was all the answer he needed, but he struggled to stay put and don't look cocky. He didn't want to make her feel even less valued or having her thinking again that he was toying with her. He was going to do that right, as he should had done it since the start.

She smiled awkwardly, a flame of hope lightening up inside of her. Although that didn't erase his previous mistakes, it sure was a great gesture. She didn't say anything else, though. He was an adult and, if that was really his decision, then so be it. She went to see Alex and give her instructions, instead of arguing with him.

Vincent listened to their talk, tense. Alex hadn't talked much with him after their frank conversation the day before. Catherine called earlier, saying that she had everything settled to the run and he told the nurse about the plan. She agreed promptly, which was a relieve. He had expected more arguments, but she was surprisingly approachable and sensible.

When they came out of JT's room, Alex had a calm expression. In a odd way, she looked relieved and light. Vincent was willing to bet that she looked free. Maybe, in the end, she finally had her closure. She took some steps towards him with a shy smile and he covered the space left towards her and they met in the middle in a friendly hug. There was no more tension and unfinished matters between them. That was the end.

"I'm sorry that you have to leave your life behind," he murmured close to her ear.

"Well, I thought a lot about this and realized that it's a good thing. It's time to get rid of some ghosts and let go of a life I lost ten years ago," she said sincerely.

"Those ghosts were great together once," he affirmed before kissing her cheek and letting her go.

"Bye, Vince!"

Catherine had her head bowed, avoiding to look at them, thus Vincent couldn't read her face, but her heart was beating fast. He hoped that it was a good sign.

The girls got in the car quickly and Cat headed to the bus station. Although the brunette was helping her, Alex couldn't help, but feel uncomfortable in her presence. Too much happened between them to hope they would have a friendly confrontation.

"Thank you for all that you're doing for me! I mean, after all I did... Can you forgive me for shooting you someday? That... and all the rest, too?" she murmured timidly.

"I already did, Alex! You were under a lot of pressure, not knowing what to do or who you could trust. I understand that perfectly. I'm not going to lie to you, though. You had been lied to more than necessary already. I can forgive, but I can't forget. At least, not for now," Cat said, unable to hide how much she was hurt. "I just don't understand why I became your target. All I tried to do from the start was to help you."

The redheaded woman didn't respond and turned her head to watch the streets and buildings passing by. After a few minutes, Cat just assumed that she wouldn't say anything else and let the conversation die.

"Because I'm not the one Vince loves. It was easier to formulate a conspiracy theory in my head than seeing what was right in front of my eyes," Alex said, suddenly.

"That's not true! Vincent left everything behind to be with you," the brunette replied, sadly.

"He's not here right now, is he?" the other woman argued. "A lot of things changed since Vince join the army, but there's one thing about him that didn't change and you have to understand it, Catherine. He always does the right thing. Like compensating for leaving me all those years ago. Even when his heart is not on it."

"Maybe he decided that it's better to wait until Muirfield is out of his way before following you," Cat tried to reason, not wanting to let false hope fill her heart.

Alex looked at her with a resigned expression and said in a firm tone, "Vince never cried!"

"What?" the petite woman questioned quietly.

"He always was brave. Everyone's insecure and a little afraid in the beginning when attending the ER on med school. Vince wasn't different from anyone of us. But something extraordinary happened on Vince's first week on the ER that made us all admire him. There was a fire and a four year old boy got admitted with half of his body badly burned. Everyone wanted to help the boy, but was too scared to take the case. Not Vince, though. You should have seen him, Catherine! You would be so proud!" Alex told her, her eyes focused on a distant past. "He just went there and took care of him, acting like it was nothing. The boy actually started to laugh with his jokes after he anesthetized him. And Vince didn't even shake. Of course, I found him a couple of hours later, alone in a vacant room, crying like a baby," she laughed a little. "But when someone needed him, he was strong and firm. The first time I saw him crying while tending to someone was two nights ago, when he was stitching your arm."

Cat didn't say anything, trying to grasp everything that the other woman was telling her. She thought that she had saw tears in Vincent's eyes, but she attributed it to her exhaustion and shock. Alex's little tale was revealing and touching, but she might had saw only what she wanted to see.

"Vince may had thought about going away with me to make it right for me and to run away from his problems, but his heart would have stayed in New York. Deep inside, I knew that. That's why it was so easy to believe that woman and her lies and assume that you had a bad influence on him. It was easier to think that you was the real threat, the only thing keeping us apart than to look in his eyes and see the truth there. It would have been great to eliminate you from the equation. It's petty, selfish and childish and I'm so sorry for that. You don't deserve what I did and thought."

"It doesn't matter what I deserve or not. In the end, he chose you, Alex. You were his first love!"

The nurse looked at her with an odd, almost sarcastic smile on her face and her voice sounded a little bitter when she spoke.

"Everybody has a first love. Sometimes, we outgrow it. He has."

They had arrived at the bus station and got out of the car, going to find her bus. It was an awkward situation, but Cat wanted to make sure she got into the bus without any accident so they stayed together for a few more minutes until it was time for Alex to board.

The hazel eyed woman only left the bus station after seeing the bus driving away without any disturbance. Their talk had touched her deeper than she wanted or allowed herself to admit. She had never considered that aspect of Alex's interference in her relationship with Vincent. She knew what kind of a man he was and she believed that he was perfectly capable of disregarding his own feelings just to correct his mistakes.

But that knowledge only confused her even more. If being with Alex was the right thing to do, that meant being with her was wrong? And all the time, Alex's words danced around her head. She didn't want to, but she kept hearing the other woman saying that Vincent had never cried while attending to someone's wounds before.

**A/N: How did I manage to take twelve chapters of a episode with only 42 min? Even I can't believe that! I must really like this show! LOL **

**I debated with myself about making Vincent cry while stitching Catherine's arm, but this conversation between Cat and Alex kept playing in my mind so I had to write it down. I know people might not like that little detail, but I'm proud of it. **

**See ya! ;P**


	13. Closing Time

**Disclaimer: This is just a work of fiction written for fun. I don't own Beauty and the Beast in any way. **

**Closing Time**

Catherine sighed deeply when she entered her apartment. She didn't remember feeling so tired before. The latest events had taken all her energy, leaving her empty. The only thing she felt and understood at that moment was the blazing pain spreading all over her body that came from her heart.

She just didn't understand what happened, what made the beautiful relationship she had with Vincent take the path it took. She blamed herself for being coward, for being afraid of getting hurt by him and pulling back before he actually did it. Knowing that he had lied to her felt like a punch on her stomach. Knowing that Alex thought she was someone that was in his life just accidentally, after finding out by her own that they had been engaged was more than she could handle. It just hurt too much for her to ignore it so she did the only thing she knew exactly how to do. Withdrawal.

Though, the brunette couldn't avoid to think what would happen if she had really confronted him, if she had called him on his deceive. Of course, she already knew the answer. She had saw it before, on hers and her friends previous relationships. One day, something would come up and bother him and the first thing that he would think would be how much he regretted choosing the wrong girl and letting go the girl that would be perfect and would never have done that. She didn't deserve or need that. That was just one of the many reasons for pulling back, but it was a strong one.

She was deep in thought, putting her keys on the kitchen's counter and taking her gloves off when a noise disturbed the silence on the room and she looked up quickly, only to find Vincent standing at the balcony's door. Her heart started beating faster. She wasn't ready for that confrontation.

"Alex is already on a bus leaving town," she informed him in a neutral tone.

"Thanks for taking care of her. Actually, thanks for everything," he said in a tentative tone.

"Of course," Catherine replied, sighing. "I'm sorry that she had to go, but I'm sure you can find a way to communicate with her when she find a place to live."

"Catherine, stop! I'm sorry for leaving the warehouse after promising you I wouldn't, but I thought Muirfield had found Alex and she was in trouble. I was just trying to protect her because I felt guilt for deluding her. I was there because I thought she was in danger, not because I still love her. Please, when are you going to believe that I don't want to be with her? What else can I do to convince you that it's you that I want?" the ex-soldier asked in a pleading tone.

"Vincent, I don't resent you for trying to help her. That's one thing I can count you'll do right. Protect innocent people. But I'm really tired. Can you, please, go now?" the petite woman murmured, fighting to remain composed.

Her dismissal actually made him panic. She never had sent him away before, even when they were in the middle of the storm created by Alex's presence. He felt like she was slipping through his fingers and there was nothing he could do to hold her in his grasp, to keep her by his side.

"I-I was hoping... hum... that we could talk. We... We have... No, I have! I have so much to say."

"Like what, Vincent? We already said enough. We already hurt each other more than necessary, more than we can handle. What else do you have to say?"

"That I'm an idiot! That I'm an stupid ass that deluded myself, thinking that going back to Alex was the right, honorable thing to do. I thought I owned her that much. Catherine, she wasted ten years of her life because of me. I can't even describe how guilty I felt about it. I thought I owned her to keep my promise to marry her. I thought I owned her my happiness," Vincent confessed, feeling frustrated, ashamed and hopeless.

"Maybe, but you don't own her mine. She talked to me about that. About you trying to compensate her for your abandon, which made me think. If being with her was the right thing to do, then being with me is the wrong. If you were so willing to forget about me because your sense of honor, then I can't expect you to stick around the next time a shadow of your past pops into our lives. If it comes down to you only trying to do what it's right, being with me it's really the wrong thing to do. Alex is better than me because I'm proud. I could never accept a man that doesn't love me by my side. I could never pretend to be living in a pink world or accept to live in a fantasy world like her. I could never throw my internal issues on somebody else's shoulders. I can't live like this and you demanding that was beyond unfair. The fact is that I'm tired of your double standards, Vincent!" she said, tiredly.

The burning behind her eyelids was almost unbearable, but he held her ground, opening her mouth slightly to take large gulps of air, trying to control her emotions. She was determined not to cry in front of him anymore.

"What do you mean, double standards?" he whispered, feeling his body growing colder at each word she said.

"Everything about you is based on double standards, Vincent. You never told me the truth about Alex and, when I found out by my own, you acted like _I_ was the one in the wrong because I didn't believe you wasn't still in love with her. You went behind my back to rekindle with her and, when I pulled back, you accused me of using that as an excuse to back down," Catherine felt her lower lip trembling, but she couldn't stop the flow of words coming out of her mouth. "It took me months for you to trust me enough to give me your phone number, but Alex got it in the first week and she was the one that never knew the whole truth about you. When Evan kissed me, you simply push me away without a second thought, without even knowing if there was something really going on between us. But when I allowed you to figure out if you still loved the woman you were engaged to, a woman that you were trying to hide from me, you put yourself in a victim role, put Alex in a pedestal and _I was the one_ that would never be able to love you. You only thought of me as the person that would never see you as a person when _you were the one_ that despised what you are. If Alex had accepted you, you would be with her because I was the villain, the shallow woman that couldn't see past your appearance. All about you and what you need and think. All double standards, Vincent."

She paused, hating the tear rolling down her right cheek. The brokenhearted woman knew that it would be impossible to hold the cry she had imprisoned inside of her from that moment on. Vincent knew he should take that opportunity to say something, but her sorrow was so profound that he couldn't think of anything to soothe her.

"You're always ready to think the worst of me, Vincent, and I don't deserve this. The trust issues we have are not about me trusting you, they're about you trusting me. I don't see how you can even think that I'm the one you want when you can't give me the benefit of the doubt. Everything is about you and what you see, what you think is right. You never let me have a say on anything. You never let me voice my own feelings and fears. Not once. That's not the relationship I want. That's not a relationship bonded to work."

Vincent was ashamed. He wished that he could deny it, that he could argue that he was too confused to see all those things, but the truth was that she was right. He never stopped to think about what was happening to her. He only saw his self-hatred reflected on her eyes and he tried to protected himself by hiding behind Alex.

"I'm so sorry. I-I just don't know... how to do this..." he tried to explain, but she had something to say about that, too.

"See? That's my point exactly! You're allowed to mess up, to doubt and be wrong because you don't know how to be with me and I have to be patient and understanding. But when I'm the one that don't know how to be with you, you simply take the first opportunity to take off. You never tried to understand what was going on with me. I went to you to say I wanted to be with you, you rejected me and, next thing I know, _that woman_ is inside my apartment saying that you were going to a romantic trip together. _I was hurt_, Vincent! It hurt like hell! But when you went after me, affirming you wanted to apologize, the only thing you cared about was how you felt, how much you were hurt because I wasn't being a gracious and comprehensive loser. You never stopped to think how I felt because the man I wanted had chose the other woman. So, I ask you again, Vincent, what else is there to be said?"

"Nothing," he murmured sadly, his eyes glued to the ground.

"That was what I thought. Good night, Vincent!"

The brunette felt frail and vulnerable, unable to calm the frantic beating of her heart that seemed ready to pop out of her chest at any minute. She turned her back on him, waiting to hear him getting out so that she could run to her bedroom and throw herself on her bed. He didn't move, though.

His deep voice sounded broken when he spoke again and Catherine knew he was crying, too, "I know I don't have the right to ask you this, but do you really hate me, Catherine?"

"No, Vincent," she sobbed, turning back to face him. "I'm sorry for saying that. You hurt me and I wanted to hurt you back. It was petty and vengeful of me and I'm ashamed of it."

"Don't be! I deserved it! I would deserve your hate, too, but I already proved myself selfish enough to be happy that you don't feel it."

"I don't," she reaffirmed.

"Just so you know, Alex's not better than you, she never was. That's the whole point of this mess. She's weak, delusional and needed me to survive while you're strong, beautiful and special. You don't need me. Actually, you don't need anybody, but that only makes you even more special. Even being completely fine by your own, you still allow people to participate of your life, you still care and love people with all your heart. And here I am, full of flaws and condemned to a life in the shadows. How could I expect to deserve someone like you?" the dark haired man spoke in a soft tone.

"So it's my fault again?" she stuttered between her tears.

"No, none of this is your fault! I know you want me to leave, but I have things to say and, although I don't think it'll change anything, you still deserve to hear them. I never felt about Alex the way I feel about you. Yes, there was a time when I loved her, but even then it can compares to what I feel for you. When she entered my life again, I felt guilty like never before because what I did to her was just wrong. It was the most despicable thing _I_ ever did. Me, not my inner monster. Alex's frailty is all work of Vincent Keller. The first time we spoke, she told me that she didn't get over me and I was too much of a coward to come clean with her and tell her everything. Particularly, tell her about you. When you pulled back, I thought that all my fears had came true. Yes, you're right, I just couldn't believe that someone like you would ever want me. It was easier to let myself believe in the fantasy that someone I thought loved me was offering than accept that you could actually feel the same way I felt. Then, everything just got out of control and I didn't know who I was anymore. When you came to me, I was already too wrapped up in Alex's delusional world and didn't want to go back to reality. You said that you don't trust me to be faithful anymore and you have thousands of reasons to think like that. All I can offer you is my sincerity. I had learned my lesson, Catherine. What I feel for you is real and strong, it's not a beautiful illusion of a world that doesn't exist. There's nothing else that will make me doubt us again. I won't let anything else influence me anymore, not even my own fears. The only thing that can make me go away now is you telling me to go. And, even then, I'll always be close, protecting you from afar, until the day I die."

Catherine wanted so much to look at his eyes, but her vision was blurry with tears. She thought that there was nothing Vincent could do to fix her broken heart, but his words were so powerful and his tone was so sincere, so full of the same longing she felt that she actually felt it mending again. She had to fight hard not to throw herself in his arms and forget about everything else. She couldn't do that, though, not before being sure that there was no more resentments between them.

"It's just that I think you're being a little bit contradictory. You said that this isn't the relationship you want and there's nothing else to be said, but you took a shot to protect me. That doesn't sound like someone that is not emotionally attached anymore," the war veteran said boldly, looking at her eyes.

She actually smiled awkwardly behind her tears and said, "Yeah, I found out that you can't control your heart. Damn thing just does what it wants!"

A little hope twisted Vincent's heart, making him taking a step towards her, whispering, "And what is yours doing now?"

The brunette took a step back, looking confused and trapped. He continued to advance slowly while she stepped back.

"Other than beating a million miles a minute?" she asked, rhetorically, suffocated by his proximity. "I just... I think tha-that we... should take things slow and try to be friends again."

"Totally!" he agreed with a hungry expression on his face while still walking towards her.

Her back finally hit the kitchen's counter and there was nowhere to run anymore.

"You know, let things unfold naturally," she stuttered uncontrollably.

"Right!" Vincent said absently, his eyes fixed on her lips.

"It's just that... With all the trusting issues..." she continued to argue without conviction.

Vincent wasn't really listening, mesmerized by her pink lips and the adorable sound of her defenseless against their shared emotion. He knew she was still talking, but the only thing that mattered was the erratic sound of her heart and the heat radiating from her body, begging him to touch it. He didn't resist the temptation, putting his right hand on her neck, right under her chin. All his body followed his hungry movement, leaning slowly towards her.

It was heaven. He was finally touching his Beauty without restrainment. Her lips were so close and inviting. She had stopped talking, looking at him with the same hunger he felt. He let his lips descend over hers, touching it gently, almost in fear and she didn't try to stop him. He was going to kiss her.

"I knew it," both heard Heather's voice behind them.

They broke apart immediately, scared. That would be really hard to explain.

**A/N: Would it be too hard for BatB's writers to put a little explanation from Vincent? How difficult is to write a couple of lines with an apology? If I can do it, I'm sure they can do better. **

**And don't even try to argue, saying that the time is short and the apology would take all the time they had. I would gladly change the almost kiss for a good make up talk. **

**Since I just wanted to have a decent closure, the story ends here and we can go on following our favorite show and I'll just pretend that it ended like this.**

**You know, I actually feel good now that I wrote this!**

**See ya! ;P**


End file.
